‘You Saved the Spirit of the World’: Netanyahu Hails Indian Pilot Who Thwarted Hijacking Aimed at Ben Gurion Airport

The Indian pilot who helped thwart the terror attack on the FlyDubai plane that he was flying last Wednesday from the UAE is being hailed a hero in Israel.On Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with the Flydubai co-captain, Captain Smit Machchhar, on the phone. “You are a hero for Israel, India, and the entire world. I invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi and you to light a flame on the next Israeli Independence Day,” the Israeli premier told Captain Machchhar, who is recovering at a hospital in Saudi Arabia.Captain Machchhar’s heroic actions aboard Flydubai Flight 1073 gain even greater resonance in the wake of reports from Israeli officials on Sunday that the terrorist, Hamam al-Hammami told interrogators that he was aiming to plow the plane into Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.During the emotional conversation, Captain Machchhar disclosed new details about the terrifying moments in the cockpit. “It was a normal flight. The copilot” — Mr. al-Hammami — “wanted to pray. That’s not out of the ordinary. Out of respect, I was looking at the front, not at the back,” recalled Captain Machchhar. “Suddenly there was a big blow to the back of my head. My first thought was that there was a catastrophic blow to the aircraft. But then the blows kept coming one after another. I realized that it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other guy who was in the cockpit. I tried to stop him but because of the blows, my vision was nothing. I was completely blurred out. The next feeling that I had was that the aircraft was going down.” Captain Machchhar continued: “I heard people screaming. I had that one last fight left in me. I felt that if I didn’t do it, I was going to die. I just went for the door and opened the door. Thankfully people were waiting to pounce back and take over control.” Mr. al-Hammami stabbed Captain Machchhar’s with an emergency crash ax, sending him to the floor. The Israel-bound plane, which had more than 170 people on board including many Israeli families returning from vacation, plummeted 17,000 feet. Captain Machchhar, heavily wounded and bleeding, somehow sent an emergency signal and opened the cockpit door, where several passengers waiting outside rushed in including Israeli plumber Yaniv Hayoun and three others.Mr. Hayoun grabbed the attacker, put him in chokehold, and pulled him out of the cockpit. An Israeli bank executive, Tzvika Manes, and another passenger, Asaf Rajuan helped hold the co-pilot down. Mr. Manes’s wife, Tali, told the Israeli press that she had heard “strange noises” coming from the cockpit as she waited for her five-year-old daughter, Nina, outside the bathroom of the flight. She told her the backup pilot seated nearby to go investigate. “I heard banging on the door, which was strange. As Israelis, we are sensitive to noise that’s out of place.”After capturing Mr. al-Hammami, Mr. Hayoun returned to pull up the jet’s steering control to right the plane, an action he learned from watching a popular Canadian-produced TV show, “Air Crash Investigation,” also known as “Mayday.” Another Israeli passenger, Dr. Shota Musayev, a dentist, provided life-saving treatment to Captain Machchhar, who was suffering from serious injuries including severe wounds to his neck and heavy bleeding from his head and hands. Mr. Netanyahu previously stated that Mr. al-Hammami had undergone “Islamist radicalization” and intended “to crash the plane with all the passengers on board.” The Israeli leader told Captain Machchhar that he was amazed by his “courage and coolness of judgement under impossible conditions.. You saved so many souls. You saved the spirit of the world.”

‘You Saved the Spirit of the World’: Netanyahu Hails Indian Pilot Who Thwarted Hijacking Aimed at Ben Gurion Airport

‘You Saved the Spirit of the World’: Netanyahu Hails Indian Pilot Who Thwarted Hijacking Aimed at Ben Gurion Airport

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