The Indian Captain saved the day. A hero among heroes. Flight captain Smit Machchhar suffering from an axe attack had the strength to punch open the cockpit door where Israeli subdued the Co-Capitain.

“I was fighting for my life,” said Machchhar, who is an Indian national. “When I was lying on the floor I could feel the aircraft was going down. I knew exactly that this would be the last push. I told myself that if I didn’t get up, there would be a problem. I managed to open the door, and then everyone else came in.”

FlyDubai pilot Smit Machchhar speaks from his hospital bed in Saudi Arabia with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the incident that played out on a flight to Israel from Dubai, in a video call on Oct. 2, 2026.

Machchhar told Modi how, in his darkest moments, he repeated Hindu religious chants and clung to his faith, believing “God would save us.”

The Israeli plumber who helped stop the attacker aboard the Dubai-to-Israel flight had a personal message for President Donald Trump when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Tell Trump that I love him,” Yaniv Hayoun said in Hebrew, according to a translation of his remarks.

Netanyahu met with Hayoun and other flight heroes in his office, hearing their accounts of confronting the attacker and helping save the aircraft.

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