New Delhi: Flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar was stabbed by his co-pilot Wednesday, yet managed to open the cockpit so passengers could step in and restrain the other pilot. His actions helped get 174 passengers safely to the ground in Saudi Arabia. On Thursday morning, neighbours at his Ghatkopar building were still waiting to hear that he was out of danger.
Machchhar was the captain on flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv when, according to Israeli sources, his co-pilot tried to crash the aircraft. Two reserve flydubai pilots travelling on the flight eventually landed the aircraft in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Machchhar is being treated in hospital and was reported to be stable. His parents left Mumbai Wednesday evening for Dubai and were to travel from there to Saudi Arabia. Machchhar’s neighbours told ThePrint that flydubai was arranging their journey.
“He has been taken to hospital, the operation is over, and we are being told he is stable. Until his parents see him with their own eyes, we won’t really know,” said Laxmikant Joshi, who lives on the fourth floor and is a friend of Machchhar’s father. “He is stable, but the better news will be when we hear that he is out of danger and completely fine.”
There was pride in the building too. But Joshi said it was not the kind anyone would want to experience.
“I hope no one ever has to feel this kind of pride,” he said.
Also read: A plunge, a cockpit fight. It was like a movie—flydubai passengers recount ordeal
Parents nervous, afraid
A few TV crews stood outside the building. The intersection on the road from Ghatkopar toward Tilak Nagar was busy as always, and a vegetable vendor stopped to ask a cameraman what was going on before walking away.
Inside the lobby, residents spoke to the media, patiently answering one reporter after another. A few seemed amused at the sudden attention. Some were unhappy that their phone numbers had been shared across media organisations without their permission.
Ashok Makwana, chairman of the building, has known the family for around 14 years.
“He is a very good person. A very cool person. Of course the building is proud, but it is a proud moment for the country too,” Makwana said.
Akshay Doshi lives next door to the family. He said residents first heard about an aircraft emergency around 12.30 pm Wednesday. By around 2 pm, they realised it involved a flydubai flight and tried calling Machchhar. They could not reach him.
By 6 pm, Doshi said, they knew Machchhar was the captain. When he met Machchhar’s parents later that evening, “they were very concerned, very nervous, and very afraid”.
“Obviously they were very proud. But I think in such adversities, fear takes over,” Doshi said.
Doshi drove the couple part of the way to the airport. He described Machchhar as “jovial and family-oriented”.
“He is very passionate about aviation. There’s nothing else that I can see him doing apart from aviation,” Doshi said.
Machchhar had studied management at Welingkar Institute of Management. The institute told ThePrint that he was enrolled there in 2007-08 and completed a one-year postgraduate diploma through distance learning.
He completed his commercial pilot training in New Zealand and obtained his Boeing 737 type rating at the Flight Safety Training Centre in Manesar, Gurugram.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)