S mit Machchhar was lying on the floor of the flydubai flight deck, covered in blood, when he managed to click the release to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to gain entry, overpower his attacker and save 174 passengers onboard.
Moments earlier, Machchhar’s fellow pilot had stabbed him, in an apparent effort to crash the plane, which was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Machchhar, from Mumbai, is being treated in a hospital in Saudi Arabia’s north-western city of Tabuk, where the plane landed safely.
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, lauded Machchhar as a hero in a post on X early on Thursday.
“In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others. His valour helped save hundreds of lives and avert a great tragedy,” he wrote.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was equally impressed with Machchhar’s actions. “Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker,” he said.
Machchhar is one of several people hailed as heroes for managing to wrest control of the plane from the attacker who apparently attempted to crash it, according to Israeli officials who also provided much of the detail on how events played out inside the plane.
The incident began with a struggle, when Machchhar’s fellow pilot – reportedly an Omani national – stabbed him and sent the jet plunging nearly 14,000ft (4,300 metres) in less than 30 seconds.
Several passengers were able to enter the cockpit soon after to help subdue the attacker.
“What made it difficult for us was [Machchhar] himself,” said Yaniv Hayoun, who was among those in the cockpit and whom Netanyahu described as a plumber. “He had been stabbed and was on the other side of the door.”
Hayoun later told Netanyahu that as people wrestled with the attacker “I jumped back, grabbed the controls, and started pulling back the handles”, the way he had seen on television shows. Then other crew members took over.
Dr Shota Musaev, a dentist, was also among those who ran to the cockpit. He told CNN they found the attacker on the floor on top of the pilot, stabbing him. He then rushed to help Machchhar, “terrified” he was going to die.
“He was covered in cuts – his head, his hands – they were practically sliced open, almost severed in two … he had lost a lot of blood and was in bad shape.
“I think that if we had waited even a few more moments, we would have lost him. His blood pressure had plummeted, he suddenly lost consciousness, and there was blood everywhere,” he said.
Musaev said he had also helped subdue the attacker by tying him up with headphone cords and plastic zip-ties.
Other crew members then stabilised the plane’s descent of the plane and landed it safely. Among those who intervened was an off-duty British pilot, according to a passenger, Almog Itali, who said the plane was carrying a pair of relief pilots who were meant to fly the next flight.
“The relief pilots are European, one of them British, who entered [the cockpit] and pulled the aircraft up, pulled the yoke, stabilised the plane and landed us in Saudi Arabia,” Itali said in a clip posted by the BBC. Other reports suggested the off-duty pilots were from South Africa or New Zealand.
Indian officials confirmed that Machchhar had undergone surgery in Saudi Arabia and was in a stable condition. They said they had been in touch with his wife and two children, aged seven and two.
Neighbours from the Mumbai community where Machchhar was born, and where his parents still live, spoke of their pride at his bravery.
Janit Shah, a neighbour who has known Machchhar for years, said: “We were initially very concerned when we heard about the incident. We know him as a very jubilant and kind person. It is incredible to hear about his brave act.”
Another neighbour, who said she was a friend of Machchhar’s mother but asked not to be named, described the pilot as a warm and active member of the community. “We are elated with joy and so proud of him,” she said.
Aviation experts have expressed surprise the plane did not crash after a descent so rapid that most of the rudder was torn off the tail. One passenger described the moment of the nosedive as like “massive turbulence … for 20 or 30 seconds”.
Steve Arroyo, a former United Airlines pilot and aviation safety expert, said: “That was a serious descent and strong aerodynamic forces on that rudder for that to happen. I’m just amazed the aircraft didn’t come apart.”
Jeff Guzzetti, another aviation expert, said: “What saved them is there was enough altitude left for them to recover.” It may not have been possible for the plane to level out if it had fallen below 10,000 feet, he said.
The fact Machchhar was able to unlock the cockpit door no doubt saved all the passengers onboard.
Philip Kean, the chief executive of Mainland Air in New Zealand – where Machchhar trained for 18 months in 2008 and 2009 – said the pilot had shown leadership after being attacked.
Speaking on a podcast last year, Machchhar said he had not originally intended to become a pilot, and had initially trained to go into his family’s textile business, before coming across an aviation seminar aged 19. “That’s where the aviation bug, in a way, bit me,” he said.
He had never left India before he took his first commercial flight as a pilot in training, and said his mother had been very scared about him becoming a pilot.
He hailed pilots’ training to deal with all sorts of emergency scenarios. “When we are up there and if something happens, you know who’s going to save you,” he said on the podcast. Pilots “can save your life, you know”.
