The photographs travelled fast. Smit Machchhar, flydubai captain, standing in front of UAE leaders with a long line of stitches plainly visible on his head.
President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan conferred the First Class Order of Zayed II on the FZ1073 crew this week, with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai's ruler and the country's Vice President, in the room. Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan was pictured handing the honour to crew members. They thanked the President and said they were proud.
Indian channels then latched onto one exchange. The President looked at the injury and asked when it would heal. Talk turned to combat training, with jiu-jitsu mentioned once the captain is well, and he was told he has a family in the UAE. Reports differ a little on the details. Some Indian outlets also call him only the third Indian to receive the honour, which is worth checking before you repeat it.
September 30. A Boeing 737 MAX 8 leaves Dubai for Tel Aviv with 174 people on board.
Over Jordanian airspace it swings towards Saudi Arabia and sends two emergency signals. UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi later said the co-pilot attacked the captain with a crash axe and tried to take control. The jet fell about 14,000 feet in the struggle. Machchhar, bleeding and badly hurt, managed to open the cockpit door so that help could get in.
Help was already close. A flydubai pilot sitting in the cabin, who was rostered to fly the return leg from Tel Aviv, had noticed the cockpit door opening and closing in a strange rhythm. He and a few passengers overpowered the co-pilot. Then he and his own co-pilot took the controls and landed at Tabuk, in north-western Saudi Arabia.
Saudi authorities detained him there. By Thursday he was in the UAE.
The attorney general says he is a 29-year-old Omani national who planned to seize the aircraft and carry out a suicide attack on the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport. Those are allegations. Nothing has been proven in court, and the authorities themselves say the case remains subject to the legal process.
Israeli investigators are expected to join the UAE-led inquiry, a government official told Reuters. A basic question hung around early on and, in the coverage I found, still has no public answer: how did this man end up rostered on a Tel Aviv flight at all? Prosecutors have so far taken statements from Machchhar, the intervening pilot, the return-leg co-pilot and other crew.
Narendra Modi called him a hero and later spoke to him by phone. President Droupadi Murmu praised his presence of mind. So did External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Gujarat's government said it will give him its Visisht Gujarat Garima Award.
Donald Trump said the captain was in very bad shape and still got the door open. Benjamin Netanyahu rang him personally and invited him to Israel as a guest of honour.
Then the letter. On October 12 Israeli President Isaac Herzog posted a copy of one addressed to the captain, with "Dear Smit" scribbled by hand next to the formal greeting, and invited him to Jerusalem once he has healed. Gulf News reports Israel will also give him its Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism after he recovers.
In the UAE, Sheikh Hamdan visited him in hospital and spoke of his courage. Anwar Gargash, the President's diplomatic adviser, said he deserved every bit of the appreciation. Community members gathered to pray for his recovery.
Machchhar has flown for flydubai since June 2022, when he joined as a Direct Entry Captain after more than ten years at SpiceJet in India. SpiceJet put out its own message of respect after the incident.
After the landing he was treated in Saudi Arabia and then airlifted to the UAE. Deepak Mittal, India's ambassador to the UAE, met the family in Dubai.
Machchhar is still recovering. The Israeli invitation stands until he is fit to travel, and the case against the co-pilot has yet to reach a courtroom.
