Flydubai pilot recounts cockpit stabbing to Indian PM Modi in phone call

Flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar has recounted a dramatic cockpit attack to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a phone call, describing how his co-pilot stabbed him while the aircraft was flying toward Tel Aviv.

An attack in the air

According to Machchhar's account, the episode turned into what he described as a midair disaster — the characterization he used when relaying the events to India's top government official. The attack took place inside the cockpit, a space normally restricted to flight crew, underscoring how directly the incident touched on the aircraft's operation and safety during the flight.

Flydubai is a Dubai-based carrier that operates flights to a range of destinations, including Tel Aviv, the city the affected flight was headed toward when the stabbing occurred.

Call with India's prime minister

The fact that Prime Minister Modi personally reached out to the pilot by phone signals the level of attention Indian authorities have given to the incident. In the conversation, Machchhar openly described what he went through during the attack and how the situation unfolded while the aircraft was airborne.

No further details about the cause of the attack or its immediate aftermath have been made public so far. Still, the fact that the episode reached the highest level of the Indian government illustrates how seriously it is being treated, both as an aviation-safety matter and in terms of the personal toll on the Indian nationals involved, who work for a foreign airline.