Smit Machchhar, the captain who was wounded during the FlyDubai attack this week, detailed his harrowing experience during a phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Machchhar, who is an Indian national and spoke to Modi from his hospital bed in Abu Dhabi, said he had been flying for 17 years and a captain for 11 years. He said he can tell, even with his eyes closed, what is happening with a plane.
“When I was lying there on the floor, I could feel that the aircraft was plunging,” he said, speaking about the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, in which he was attacked by his co-pilot. “And I knew that it would be the last push.”
He willed himself to open the door to the cockpit, which allowed other passengers to rush in and apprehend the assailant, whom Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said was “suicidal” and underwent Islamist indoctrination.
“Everyone came in and played an equally important role in what happened,” Machchhar said.
“I knew that, apart from fighting for my own life, I could not let all those people die.”
Modi posted a clip of the exchange to social media. It mirrored videos, posted at a fraught moment in Israeli politics, by Netanyahu, in which he heard from Israeli passengers who fought to avert disaster.
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