- Prime Minister Modi praised Captain Smit Machchhar for averting a disaster on flydubai flight
- Co-pilot stabbed Machchhar, who was seriously injured but helped save over 170 passengers and crew
- 'I was injured but couldn't let passengers die,' he told PM Modi during a video call
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday spoke to Captain Smit Machchhar and praised him for averting catastrophe after his co-pilot stabbed him and tried to crash the flydubai plane.
Captain Machchhar was seriously injured after the co-pilot, an Omani national, stabbed him during a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning. Hearing noises, passengers and crew rushed into the cockpit and overpowered the co-pilot as the Boeing 737 Max plunged nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds. A second pair of flydubai pilots aboard the flight -- which was carrying over 170 passengers and crew -- then landed the jet safely in Saudi Arabia's Tabuk.
Speaking to Captain Machchhar over the video call, the prime minister said his "courage, patience, and presence of mind" saved so many lives.
"You sustained such a severe injury and were fighting for life. Yet, even then, you did not care for your life, you cared for the lives of all the passengers," PM Modi told Captain Machchhar, who spoke to him from the hospital bed.
"140 crore Indians feel honoured because of you," PM Modi told him.
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Narrating the chain of events, Captain Machchhar -- who is from PM Modi's home state of Gujarat -- recalled that he was "fighting for his life" in the cockpit.
"I had so many wounds that I had collapsed," he said as he broke down.
He said there was a moment when he realised that if he didn't do anything, they would die.
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"I have been flying planes for 17 years and serving as a captain for the last 11. I can sense exactly what is happening with the aircraft even with my eyes closed. When I was down, I could feel that the aircraft was plummeting," Captain Machchhar, who has over 9,750 flying hours, said.
"I knew this was the last push, that the (cockpit) door was right there," he said.
He said he then somehow managed to open the door, following which the passengers and crew came to his rescue.
"Everyone else played an equal role," he said, adding that he "could not let all those people die".
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"Recited Hanuman Chalisa"
Captain Machchhar said he recites 'Hanuman Chalisa' -- a devotional hymn -- whenever he is scared.
"Whenever I feel pain, I just chant Hanuman Chalisa. At that time, too, I was only chanting Hanuman Chalisa. And I know that God saved me," he told PM Modi during the 10-minute call.
"I recite Hanuman Chalisa to my two-year-old son every morning. Even though we are far from the country, we must not drift away from our culture," Captain Machchhar, who recently moved to Dubai from Mumbai, said.
PM Modi said that he had accomplished "a monumental task".
"Today, every fellow citizen and people across the world are eager to see you and speak with you," he told the pilot.
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PM Modi also said that if he would not have saved the plane from crashing, Indians would have faced backlash.
"If this hadn't happened, who knows what India - and all its pilots - would have gone through, or how those pilots would have been perceived. You saved everyone. You have done a tremendous job," he said.
