HEROES OF FLIGHT FZ1073: Indian captain Smit Machchhar. Even though he was stabbed and seriously injured by an Omani co-pilot who wanted to crash the aircraft and kill everyone, he unlocked the cockpit doors so that the brave passengers could overpower the Omani. Without his effort, they would all be dead by now. Machchhar is not the typical pilot who dreamed of flying since childhood. In a recent interview, he described that he only decided to become a pilot on the recommendation of his parents. He trained in New Zealand. A Gujarati from Mumbai, he flew for SpiceJet for over ten years, where he was also an instructor. In recent years he has been with flydubai and has logged nearly 10,000 hours on the Boeing 737-800 and MAX. He is in a stabilized condition in a Saudi Arabian hospital. (translated)







