Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Captain Smit Machchhar on Friday and praised the Indian pilot for his courage, presence of mind and composure during the flydubai flight emergency on September 30.
You have saved everyone.
PM Modi connected with Machchhar through a video call and told him that his actions had saved everyone on board the flight. “If you hadn’t done what you did, who knows what people would have said about Indian pilots or how Indian pilots would have been seen. You have done something massive,” the prime minister said. Machchhar became emotional during the interaction and told Modi that it was a very special moment for him to speak with the Prime Minister. He said receiving the call had made him extremely proud and that he had never imagined he would get an opportunity to speak with him. India’s ambassador to the UAE, Deepak Mittal, visited him and his family at the hospital and said the pilot was “in good health and recovering well”. Despite being seriously injured, Machchhar is said to have managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to enter and overpower the attacker. A plumber then allegedly took control of the aircraft as it was nose-diving, while other pilots on board subsequently diverted the flight to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia, where it made an emergency landing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview.
