Dubai's Crown Prince Visits The Indian Pilot Who Stopped A Cockpit Attack As The Inquiry Widens
The Crown Prince of Dubai visited Captain Smit Machchhar on Saturday, days after the Indian pilot was stabbed in the cockpit of a flydubai aircraft carrying 174 people and managed, while bleeding and pinned to the floor, to release the cockpit door so that passengers and crew could overpower his attacker.
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| Image Source: DubaiMediaOffice |
Hamdan bin Mohammed: During a visit to Captain Smit Machchhar… the flydubai pilot who embodied the highest degrees of courage, responsibility, and care for human life.
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) October 3, 2026
From us, and from the leadership of the nation, he has our full appreciation and praise.
We are proud that he… pic.twitter.com/4aZx78XFRy
Machchhar has been flown back to the United Arab Emirates from Saudi Arabia, where he was first treated. The General Civil Aviation Authority said he was in good condition and receiving medical care.
The Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi said on Saturday that Machchhar remained under what it called excellent medical care and was recovering well. The mission said it was in touch with his family and with local authorities and was extending support for his recovery, and thanked the UAE government for its care of him.
Flight FZ1073 left Dubai for Tel Aviv on 30 September. Over Jordan, the first officer attacked the captain. The Boeing 737 lost close to 14,000 feet in under thirty seconds and transmitted an unlawful interference code, which prompted Israel to scramble fighter jets. Machchhar, who has said he could tell from the floor that the aircraft was descending, reached the door release before collapsing. The aircraft diverted to Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia. Everyone on board survived. The first officer was detained by Saudi authorities.
The investigation has since moved to Abu Dhabi. The UAE Attorney General, Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, has ordered a specialist team to establish whether the attack involved any terrorist activity or purpose or involved prior planning or direction. The UAE has said that crimes committed aboard aircraft registered in the country fall under its courts wherever they occur, and the team is working with the civil aviation authority and with Saudi investigators, who handled the first stage.
Update on the health condition of Captain Smit Machchhar ⬇️ https://t.co/60wYboSlnb
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) October 3, 2026
The accuased has been named in American reporting as Hamam Al Hammami, a 29-year-old Omani national. ABC News and the New York Post have identified him. Neither the UAE, nor Oman, nor flydubai has confirmed his identity or nationality. The Associated Press, citing a person familiar with the investigation, reported that he had been barred from flying in Oman over concerns about extremist views. ABC News, citing senior intelligence and law enforcement officials, reported that Oman Air had treated him as a security risk and that extremist material was found in his possession during training in 2024. Al Jazeera has reported that he was born in the UAE to a Syrian mother, spent seven years at Oman Air until February 2025, flew for Royal Air Maroc between June 2025 and January 2026, and then joined flydubai.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said the man underwent Islamist radicalisation. On Friday, India's Prime Minister telephoned Machchhar, and the Prime Minister's Office later published the video. The captain told Narendra Modi that he had kept reciting the Hanuman Chalisa throughout, and that he was treating his injuries not as wounds but as a journey.