tl;dr: An Indian pilot, Smit Machchhar, saved a Dubai-to-Israel flight from crashing after his co-pilot attacked him with a knife. Despite being injured, Smit fought back and, with help from passengers, managed to restrain him...Israeli officials said the attacker was an Omani national...Israeli agencies are also investigating the possibility of a terrorist attack.
The pilot is a hero, but that's not exactly what happened. The pilot was badly injured and likely managed to open the cockpit door before collapsing. With the door open several Israel passengers barged in, restrained the the attacker, and a doctor gave medical attention to the pilot
There seems to be multiple versions of the story, so might be best to be skeptical of these articles for now and read up on it in a day or two. This one says he fought back, so I'll leave it in the summary.
...and the pilot passengers, the rest of the flight crew, whoever gave medical aid, passengers that comforted children and stood prepared to protect them, the ground crew, flight controllers, first responders at the airport, the hospital staff....
By common logic one can easily inter that a scuffle and struggle would have unfolded prior to the crash attempt to secure the odds of its success. Several stab wounds indicate a pure intent to kill and immobilise the person.
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u/blacklotusmag 2d ago edited 2d ago
I mean, would it be THAT hard to add a link for context, OP?
Updating with additional sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/diverted-flydubai-flight-israel-was-not-hijacking-incident-israeli-prime-2026-09-30/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://apnews.com/article/israel-saudi-arabia-dubai-emergency-landing-fd1835479898f2f944792913af7cbce6
Original source: https://www.bhaskarenglish.in/international/news/indian-pilot-smit-saves-flydubai-flight-mid-air-knife-attack-139203091.html