NEW DELHI: Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, 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 (Oct 2).
„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.