Flydubai hero pilot tells Modi 'I could not let all those people die'

Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, who was wounded during an alleged attack by his co-pilot aboard a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight, acted to protect the plane's passengers, he told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.

“I was trying to save my own life, but I knew I could not let all those people die,” Machchhar said during a call from his hospital bed, in a video posted by Modi on social media.

The Boeing 737 flight, operated by Dubai-based Flydubai, was carrying 174 passengers when the altercation took place on Wednesday.

Machchhar, who has 17 years of aviation experience – 11 as a captain – described the moment he realised the plane was going down while he was lying injured, sparking his final push to avert disaster.

“I had suffered so many injuries that I had collapsed. At that time, I could feel that the aircraft was going down. I knew this was the last push, that the door was right there,” he said.

“I was being hit even then, but I just opened the door and everyone came in”.

Machchhar said years of aviation experience allowed him to understand what was happening even while he was injured.

The circumstances of the confrontation are under investigation. The co-pilot allegedly attacked Machchhar, leaving him wounded and triggering a struggle for control of the aircraft.

Passengers rerouted the Flydubai plane to stop it from crashing, making an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

Modi said his actions helped save hundreds of lives and avert “a great tragedy”.

Israeli Prime Minister Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier credited Machchhar, as well as the flight's passengers, with averting catastrophe.

Passengers described rushing the cockpit and 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.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)