US President Donald Trump called Indian flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar a “hero” after a co-pilot knife attack. Trump said Machchhar helped prevent a crash, while a passenger and others intervened to overpower the co-pilot before the aircraft landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
US President Donald Trump has described flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar as a “hero” for resisting a knife attack by his co-pilot and helping prevent an attempt to crash a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he was recounting details shared with him by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump said Netanyahu had told him that Machchhar, an Indian national, was in “very bad shape” after the attack. Machchhar has also been hailed as a “hero” by Netanyahu and others. “The pilot was in very bad shape; I guess he still is in very bad shape, but he had the sense to, amazing, to, in a way he was a hero,” Trump said, recalling his conversation with Netanyahu.
Describing the sequence of events, Trump said the pilot opened the cockpit door, managed to fall back and “scream for help”. “It seems as though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job, and he stabbed the pilot,” the US President said.
According to Trump, the aircraft later landed in Saudi Arabia after an Israeli passenger, whom he identified as a plumber with no flying experience, intervened in the cockpit and helped overpower the co-pilot. Trump said other pilots and security personnel then reached the cockpit and took control of the plane.
Trump then described what he called an “amazing” intervention by the passenger. He said the man entered the cockpit, pulled the co-pilot out of his seat and threw him backwards, after which other passengers helped restrain him.
According to Trump, the passenger later said he had picked up some basic ideas about flying by watching the television programme Air Disasters. “He said he watches it a lot, and he learned from watching that show sort of how to fly,” Trump said.
Trump said additional pilots and security personnel, who had been towards the rear of the aircraft, later reached the cockpit and took control. “I think it’s the most amazing story,” he said. He also said he was only repeating what he had been told and had not independently confirmed the details. “Now this is the story that I heard. I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from Bibi and from a couple of probably early (sources),” Trump said.
Trump said Machchhar helped foil an attempt to crash the flight after being attacked, while a passenger and others stepped in before additional pilots and security personnel took over, though he added that he had not independently verified the account.
