Captain Smit Machchhar, a flydubai pilot who saved 174 passengers from plunging to their deaths, has revealed in an interview the thoughts that passed through his mind when his co-pilot struck the back of his head with a cockpit axe in an attempt to crash the plane into a building in Tel Aviv.
Despite his injuries, he opened the cockpit door, thus allowing Israeli passengers to overpower Hammam Al-Hammami, the Omani co-pilot, from taking over the plane and proceeding with his sinister plot. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump later hailed Machchhar as a hero.
The Indian pilot told Sky News Arabia that after being repeatedly hit by the axe, he kept slipping in and out of consciousness.
He said that the Omani co-pilot sneaked in from behind and hit him. The Indian pilot said he wasn't looking back because his co-pilot said he would offer prayers inside the cockpit.
"He wanted to pray, so he stood up, and he started praying. Our 737, the aircraft that I fly, the cockpit is not the biggest, and out of respect for someone who's praying, I try not to look at them," he told the interviewer, apparently from the hospital bed.
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The pilot said he didn't know what had hit him.
"So, like I said, when I was just checking my computer for the timing and everything, suddenly there was a, a very hard hit at the back of my head over here, and it was quite hard and felt that it was something which was very strong, like the, the hit which came was from something very strong and hard. I didn't know at that point what had hit me," he said, adding, "I was in and out of consciousness frequently."
Off-duty pilots landed the plane safely in Saudi Arabia's Tabuk.
Machchhar was rushed to the hospital in serious condition, and Hammami was arrested.
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Last week, two more flydubai pilots were arrested in Dubai on suspicion of planning a terror attack -- both were said to have flown to Israel in the past. They had worked alongside Hammam al-Hammami.
Hammami had been barred from flying in Oman owing to his extremist views. The authorities are probing how, despite his chequered past, he was allowed to pilot a plane, let alone one carrying Israeli passengers.