From textile engineering to cockpit hero: Indian pilot wins praise after flydubai drama

NEW DELHI: For Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, hailed as a hero for averting a crash of a flydubai jet bound for Israel, aviation was never part of his childhood dreams.

Machchhar had his sights set on the family’s textile business, until the aviation bug bit at the age of 19, which scared his mother.

Now even after thousands of hours of flying, Machchhar’s love of aviation is something he keeps in the cockpit, reluctant to discuss with those on the ground.

“Captain Smit Machchhar is a HERO,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X. “In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others.”

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him a “true hero”.

Machchhar is recovering in a hospital in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk, where his flight was diverted on Wednesday after the co-pilot reportedly stabbed him mid-air in an attempt to crash the plane carrying 174 people, according to Israeli officials.

The Mumbai native was covered in blood on the cockpit floor when he managed to activate the release to open the cockpit door, according to Israeli officials.

This allowed passengers and crew to overpower the co-pilot, while two flydubai pilots travelling as passengers helped land the aircraft.

The veteran Boeing 737 captain, who has logged nearly 9,750 flying hours over a career spanning about 15 years, arrived in aviation relatively late.

“Unlike a lot of other aviators right now, aviation was not a childhood dream,” Machchhar said in an interview in 2025 on a YouTube channel hosted by Zalak Mehta.

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“It came along much later in my life.” Machchhar, seen in the interview and in social media pictures with a neatly trimmed beard, worked with Indian commercial airline SpiceJet for more than a decade before joining flydubai in 2022, his LinkedIn profile says.  

Once out of aircraft, don’t talk aviation

After school, he enrolled in a textile engineering course with the aim of continuing the family’s business before pursuing management studies at Mumbai’s Welingkar Institute of Management. It was there, at an aviation seminar, that he discovered flying when he was about 19 years old.

“That’s where the aviation bug … really found me,” he said, adding that his mother was initially scared of the career choice.

Machchhar later trained in New Zealand before joining SpiceJet, where he rose through the ranks to become a line training captain responsible for mentoring younger pilots.

He spent 11 years with SpiceJet and the past four years with flydubai.

In his career, he recalled having to divert flights for medical emergencies and delay departures over seemingly minor technical issues.

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“Delay is not my problem. As long as you’re walking out of the aircraft is what I want,” he said.

He has also spoken about keeping aviation separate from his personal life.

“When I get out of the cockpit or the aircraft, I don’t want the other guy to know that I’m a pilot,” he said.

“I don’t want to discuss aviation. When I wear the uniform, then no nonsense and just do your job, finish the job. When you walk out of the cockpit, that’s it. Stop thinking about that. Someone else needs you now. The kids are there. They want to play with you.”  ‑Reuters