flydubai pilot recalls harrowing cockpit struggle that helped save 170 passengers
Injured during a scuffle with his co-pilot, Captain Smit Machchaar says he summoned his remaining strength to open the cockpit door and prevent the passengers from being trapped inside.
Captain Smit Machchaar, the flydubai pilot who helped save 170 passengers after a scuffle broke out in the cockpit, has recalled how he managed to open the cockpit door despite being injured and bleeding.
Speaking to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a video call from his hospital bed in the UAE, Machchaar, whose head was bandaged, described the incident and what gave him the strength to act during the emergency.
Machchaar told Modi that he had been flying aircraft for 17 years, including 11 years as a captain.
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He said his experience as a pilot made him realise during the scuffle with his co-pilot that the safety of everyone on board depended on his actions.
"I was lying on the floor [of the cockpit] injured. With whatever energy was left in me, I managed to act properly and save the plane," he said, according to an official Hindi transcript of the conversation released by India.
"I told myself that this will be the last push. Smit, do it, the door is right there. I was being assaulted at that time. I just opened the door and all the others [passengers] came," he said.
Machchaar said he initially acted to save himself but knew he could not allow the other passengers to die.
"I told everyone that I was doing it to save my own life. But I also knew I could not let the others die either," he said.
The pilot also said he received medical treatment at hospitals in Saudi Arabia, where the aircraft landed after the cockpit incident, and later in the UAE.
Modi expressed his gratitude to the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE for providing medical care to Machchaar.
