'Kamaal kar diya pilot ji...': Salman Khan hails Flydubai hero Captain Smit Machchhar

Bollywood actor and founder of Being Human, Salman Khan, hailed Captain Smit Machchhar for his heroic act of saving 174 people on a Flydubai flight. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Khan wrote, "Kamaal kar diya pilot ji, hum sab aap ko salute karte hain will be a pleasure to fly with u.. Well done bro.. Capt #SmitMachchhar".

Machchhar, who was stabbed by his co-pilot in an alleged attempt to crash a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv, has shared a public account of how he managed to open the cockpit door and let passengers take control of the plane despite his injuries.

Speaking on October 2 from a hospital bed in Abu Dhabi via video call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Machchhar said that he knew the aircraft was going down.

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“I had suffered so many injuries that I had collapsed. At that time, I could feel that the aircraft was going down. I knew this was the last push, that the door was right there,” he said in a nearly 10-minute video released on the PM’s social media channels.

He added: “I was being hit even then, but I just opened the door and everyone came in.”

Machchhar, who has 17 years of aviation experience, including 11 as a captain, said that experience helped him grasp what was happening even while wounded. Machchhar said he allowed passengers and crew to overpower the co-pilot and let a second pair of Flydubai pilots take control and land the plane in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

What happened in the Flydubai flight

The Flydubai flight was carrying 174 people as it briefly plunged around 17,000 feet (5,180 metres) before it was brought back under control. UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash has called the incident a “terrorist act”, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination” and appeared “suicidal”.

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US President Donald Trump has warned that Iran would be “hit very hard” if found to be linked to the attack. US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that "the pilot was in very bad shape" but had the sense to open the cockpit door during the attack. "Amazing, in a way he was a hero, to open the door. He was able to fall back and get the door open."

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has said it will launch an investigation into the incident. Machchhar has more than 9,750 hours of flying experience, including more than 6,400 hours as pilot-in-command, according to his LinkedIn profile. His former employer SpiceJet issued a statement calling Machchhar a "hero" who had saved "countless lives".

Flydubai's flight FZ1073 took off from Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates at 03:05 GMT (07:05 local time) en route to Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. Data from flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows the plane made a rapid descent over Saudi Arabia around two and a half hours after take-off, dropping more than 17,000ft (5,000m) in less than two minutes at around 05:21.

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Minutes later, the plane signalled an emergency code - squawk 7700 - before switching it to a squawk 7500 code, which indicates a hijacking.

Bollywood tributes poured in

Tributes poured in from across Bollywood following the incident.

• R Madhavan shared PM Modi's statement, called the captain "a true hero."
• Vijay Deverakonda praised his calm under threat: "What you faced and what you did is incredible."
• Ravi Kishan called him "the epitome of unwavering loyalty to duty, indomitable courage, and extraordinary wisdom."
• Paresh Rawal referenced a famous Nana Patekar dialogue from the 1994 film Krantiveer, playing on the pilot's surname (Machchhar = mosquito).
• Shilpa Shetty and Jackie Shroff also offered tributes, with Shroff noting: "Some heroes work in silence!"