Dubai-Tel Aviv flight Flydubai FZ1073 plunged more than 16,000 feet just over 30 seconds during its steepest descent.  Omani co-pilot Hamam Al-Hamami, who tried to crash the Flydubai flight to Israel by stabbing Indian pilot Smit Machchar (39), flight captain inside the cockpit savage attack freed after passengers and crew intervened and a reserve pilot landed the aircraft safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. It has been reported the co-pilot was already been banned from flying by Oman over concerns about radical ideological views, despite joining Flydubai.  Captain Smit Machchhar was seriously injured after multiple stab wound, realised he was not only fighting to save his own life but also the lives of everyone on the plane.  He said “When I was lying on the floor, I could feel that the aircraft was plunging and I said to myself while I was getting beaten. “This is the last push, Smit, do it, the door is right there Somehow, I managed to open the door, and everyone came in and everyone else had an equal role in the rescue. I was trying to save myself, but I also knew that I can’t let anyone die. I was fighting for my life in that moment,  when I thought, because I had fallen on the floor, I was wounded and fell down. Even If I shut my eyes, I can tell what is happening inside a plane” he said.

Captain Smit’s presence of mind during a life-threatening emergency, along with the courage of the passengers and crew, played a crucial role in bringing the incident under control and saved 174 people on board. Mumbai-born, raised in Ghatkopar Machachar, father of two, trained as a pilot in New Zealand, in 2008, joined SpiceJet in 2011, and became a trainer, went on to join flydubai as captain in 2022.