Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Indian pilot Smit Mahchar in a phone conversation on Saturday, calling him a “true hero” not just for India and Israel but for the entire world.
The two spoke by phone, with Netanyahu sharing a video of him concluding the conversation – Machchar’s voice could be heard on the loudspeaker – by inviting the pilots to come to Israel and light the flames during the country’s next Independence Day celebrations.
“I would like to invite you and my dear friend Prime Minister Narendra Modi to light the fire of celebration on our next Independence Day,” Netanyahu said. “You are a true hero to the brave people of India and Israel, and a hero to the entire world.”
After wishing Mahchar a “speedy recovery,” Netanyahu demanded to know some details of what happened on Dubai Air flight FZ1073.
“It was just a normal flight, I mean, the co-pilot made the request, but he wanted to pray and a lot of the locals prayed, so that’s not surprising,” Mahchar explained. “But when he was praying, I just looked in front, not behind, out of respect. Suddenly, I think I would say about four or five minutes in, I got a pretty big blow to the back of my head.”
Mahchar said he initially thought something was wrong with the plane, but soon realized something worse was happening.
“My first thought was that the plane had suffered catastrophic damage and something was wrong. But, after that, the hits kept coming, one after the other, and that’s when I realized that the problem was not the plane, but the other person in the cockpit with me,” he said. “I did try to stop him, but because of his initial hit, my vision was almost nothing, I was completely blurry, and that’s when my next thought, my next feeling was that the plane was descending sharply.”
Mahchar said he tried to open the cockpit door, but the co-pilot quickly closed it again. By then, he had been stabbed several times and was lying on the floor, but he told Netanyahu, “I have one last fight left.”
“Call it personal, call it a service to people, but let’s say I did it. If I didn’t, I would die,” he added. “That’s when I fought everything. I gave it everything I had and walked to the door and opened it. Thankfully, people were waiting to fight back and took over control, and the rest is you know.”
Among those on the other side of the door was Israeli citizen Yaniv Hayun, who helped subdue the co-pilot before grabbing the controls himself and pulling the plane out of a dangerous dive.