Dubai, Oct 17 Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, who was seriously injured in an attack by his co-pilot aboard a flydubai flight last month, recalled how he feared for his life, telling himself: “You can’t die like this.”
“There was a moment that I realised and I told myself that ‘Smit, do something. You can’t die like this’,” Machchhar said in an interview with Sky News Arabia, excerpts of which were shared on the news channel’s social media accounts on Saturday.
Machchhar said he was repeatedly losing consciousness after being struck on the back of his head while checking his computer in the cockpit.
“Later on in the event, I was in and out of consciousness frequently,” he said in the interview, filmed with him on a hospital bed in the UAE.
The Indian pilot also praised the colleague who took over the aircraft’s controls during the emergency, describing his actions as commendable and saying that was something he would remember for the rest of his life.
In a separate interview with UAE-based news organisation The National, Machchhar attributed his response to a survival instinct.
“It was like a survival instinct, which kicked in, and thankfully it did for me and all my other passengers and colleagues,” he said.
Excerpts from the interview were also shared by The National on its social media accounts on Saturday.
The incident occurred on September 30 aboard flydubai flight FZ1073, which was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv with more than 170 people on board.
The Omani co-pilot allegedly attacked Machchhar inside the cockpit with an emergency crash axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft.
According to the UAE attorney general, the investigation found that the co-pilot had planned to seize control of the aircraft and crash it into the passenger terminal at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv in a suicide attack. The investigation is ongoing.
Captain Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door, allowing another pilot, cabin crew members and passengers to intervene and restrain the attacker. Other pilots aboard the aircraft took control and diverted it to Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia, where it landed safely.
The Omani co-pilot was taken into custody, while Machchhar was initially treated at a hospital in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, before being transferred to Abu Dhabi, where he is recovering.
The Indian Embassy said on October 6 that he was making “steady progress” and “regaining his health”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump have praised Machchhar’s courage and described him as a hero.
The full interviews with Machchhar by Sky News Arabia and The National are scheduled to be broadcast at 9 pm Abu Dhabi time (10.30 pm IST) on Saturday.
(PTI News)
