"Indian Prevented 9/11-Style Attack": PM Modi's Big Praise For Hero Pilot

The adjectives are being thrown at Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar, who fought off his copilot trying to crash a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, like confetti.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who earlier this morning called the India pilot a "HERO", heaped more praise on him, saying "an Indian prevented 9/11-style tragedy". 

"The incident that occurred yesterday, Captain Smit of India demonstrated remarkable patience, presence of mind, and courage; indeed, as the Prime Minister of Israel stated today, an Indian prevented a 9/11-style tragedy," PM Modi, speaking at the centenary celebrations of the Union Public Service Commission this morning in Delhi, said.

Read | Captain Smit Machchhar: The flydubai "Hero" Indian Pilot Who Saved 174 Lives

The Prime Minister said he had spoken to Machchhar's family and enquired about his health.

"Today, I had a conversation with his father Bhupendrabhai, his mother Gitaben, and his wife Sonalben. His medical treatment is currently ongoing, and today the entire world feels proud of him," he said.

PM Modi also appealed to citizens to pray for the pilot's recovery.

"I appeal to all citizens of the country that we all pray for Sumeet's long life and good health and let us honor Brother Sumeet, who has enhanced the pride and honor of India," he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the wounded Indian pilot "for his extraordinary bravery", saying he fought off his copilot, preventing a "catastrophic mid-air disaster".

Netanyahu said that the pilot of the Tel Aviv-bound flydubai flight had tried to crash the plane and kill its passengers, after the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. flydubai said all the passengers - majority of whom were Israelis - were safe.

"An amazing act of heroism -- of his, of the Indian pilot, of the people who helped them. They stopped a disaster that could have been global," Netanyahu said.

As a flydubai flight FZ 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv approached the Jordanian border on Wednesday, passengers knew in an instant that something was wrong when the plane began plummeting from the sky in a rapid dive.

Several Israeli media reported that a fight had broken out between the plane's pilots, reportedly causing a distress signal to be activated.

Captain Machchhar was seriously injured during an altercation in the cockpit. Despite his injuries, he reportedly managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew members to intervene.

Passengers gave a harrowing account of the incident on board, describing a fight for control after the plane suddenly plummeted, losing around 17,000 feet of altitude in the span of a minute, according to the Flightradar24 website.

Read | Flight Path Animation Shows flydubai's Boeing 737 MAX's Horrifying Dive

Israeli media also reported that two other pilots were flying on the plane as passengers, and that they had taken over the controls to carry out the emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

Machchhar is a seasoned pilot who currently flies as a direct-entry captain with UAE-based carrier flydubai. He has more than 13 years of commercial aviation experience and around 9,750 total flying hours, predominantly operating Boeing 737 aircraft. Before joining flydubai, he spent 11 years with Indian airline SpiceJet, where he served as a Line Training Captain.

Speaking about his route into flying in a podcast in 2025, Machchhar said he caught the "aviation bug" after attending a seminar while studying management to help his family's textile business.

Machchhar described his first commercial flight as "scary" due to the responsibility it came with, but said he learnt to cope with the pressure.

"Stressing is not going to help at least in this industry," he had said.