Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday (October 3, 2026) invited to Israel as a guest of honour the Indian captain of a Tel Aviv-bound flydubai flight who offered a dramatic account of how he saved the plane after being attacked.
Netanyahu said in a video his office released of his telephone conversation with the hospitalised captain. Mr While saying his memory was not entirely clear due to his injury. Mr. Machchhar with an axe. Asked how the attack unfolded, Mr. “A lot of locals, they do pray, which is not out of the ordinary. out of respect, I was just looking at the front and not at the back,” Mr While he was praying.
Netanyahu said he wanted Captain Smit Machchhar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi , one of Israel’s key international partners, to light a flame at a national ceremony for Israel’s Independence Day next May, saying the role was usually reserved for Israeli citizens. “You are a true hero of the brave peoples of India and Israel and you are a hero of the entire world,” Mr. UAE investigators have said that th e co-pilot planned the “terrorist act” by attacking Mr. Machchhar said the co-pilot had asked to take time to pray, as devout Muslims do five times a day. Machchhar said. Machchhar said he managed to pull open the cockpit door “but I think he shut it back closed.”
