NEW DELHI: Capt. Smit Machchhar was operating Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday when his co-pilot attacked him. He was lying on the floor of the flight deck, covered in blood, when he realized the plane carrying more than 170 people was plunging, and he had to do something. “I had so many injuries, but I told myself I have to get up and act. At the time, I pushed myself to go for one last push to open the cockpit door,” Machchhar said in a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Others came in and also played a role (in managing the situation). I was of course fighting for my own life but at the same time I knew I was not going to let others die.” His lifesaving actions made global headlines and earned him praise across his home country of India and beyond, with Modi among those calling him a “hero.” “The whole country is praying for you … Your courage, presence of mind and composure saved many lives,” Modi told him during the call. “You have made the whole country proud.” After the assailant was subdued, the plane made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where Machchhar received medical care before being transferred to Abu Dhabi for continued treatment on Thursday morning. The Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi said the captain is “in good health and recovering well.” Preliminary investigations conducted by Saudi authorities, in coordination with a security team from the UAE, “revealed that an altercation occurred in which the co-pilot assaulted the captain, resulting in injuries to both individuals,” an official from the Saudi Ministry of Interior said in a statement. Flydubai said that “the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation.” On his LinkedIn profile, Machchhar emphasized his “strong focus on safety, compliance and operational excellence,” listing around 13 years of commercial aviation experience. He spent around a decade at India’s SpiceJet in Mumbai, where he worked as a senior commander and a line training captain, before joining Flydubai in 2022. He has been living in Dubai in recent years for the job, while his family still lives in Ghatkopar East, a suburb of Mumbai, where he grew up. Prateek Gandhi, one of Machchhar’s childhood friends, remembers him as a calm and soft-spoken person. “He has always been calm and composed, and he would not get ruffled so easily,” he told Arab News, adding that they used to play cricket together. “He would demonstrate composure even in a difficult situation while we would be in the cricket ground. This trait of his, I think, helped him in handling the difficult situation in the cockpit.”