Hero pilot tells his story from hospital bed

Alex Ritzen (0:00)

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritzen, and at 13h GMT on Friday 2nd October, these are our main stories. The airline captain hailed around the world as a hero, speaks to the Indian Prime Minister from his hospital bed. A diesel crisis looms as President Trump threatens an export ban, and the US pressures Europe to release its strategic fuel reserves.

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I was not going to let others die.

The words of Captain Smit Machchhar from India, who was the pilot of the Flydubai plane, which plunged more than 5000 metres during an attempted hijacking. He was stabbed in the cockpit on Wednesday morning by his co-pilot reportedly from Oman. The plane was going from Dubai to Tel Aviv with Captain Machchhar managing to open the cockpit door. If he hadn't done so, passengers may well have not been able to overpower his attacker and save the more than 170 people on board, most of them Israeli. The captain has been speaking to the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in a video call from his hospital bed. His words are spoken by a translator.

Smit Machchhar (1:34)

I had suffered so many injuries that I had fallen down. And at that time I said to myself that if I did not get up, and sir, I have been flying planes for 17 years. I have been a captain for the last 11 years. I can tell what is happening to the plane even with my eyes closed. When I was down on the ground, I felt like a flight was going down. And I knew for sure that this would be the last push. Just do it. The door is right there. And even then, I was still being beaten.

I just opened it, sir, and everyone else came in. And everyone else had an equally important role in it. But consciously, sir, I was saying that I was doing it for my own survival.

But at the same time, I also knew that I could not let them all die.

Alex Ritzen (2:26)

Smit Machchhar speaking on Narendra Modi's YouTube channel. The Indian Prime Minister praised the captain for his courage and quick thinking. Listening to the video was our Middle East correspondent Yoland Nel, who's in Jerusalem.

Yoland Nel (2:39)

This is the first time we've heard from him since that Flydubai flight made its emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, telling us a little about what was going on. I mean, what was new here is just to know his own thought processes. Certainly, we've seen in some of the chaotic footage that was shot inside the plane by passengers, how much he was covered in blood as the passengers were forcing their way into the cockpit when he was being stabilised on board. And he was saying even then, he hit me so many times and he said that he couldn't squeeze his hand. He's on the ground also at one point asking when the police are going to come as they've arrived in Saudi Arabia. But he is saying really here with a bandaged head, with tubes in his nose from the hospital in Abu Dhabi, where he's now said to be in a stable condition. He's telling the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi just what exactly he went through. Of course, his actions, which involved then opening that cockpit door, really helped avert a disaster on board. And he has been hailed as a hero by several world leaders.

Alex Ritzen (3:49)

What stage now is the investigation at and who is leading it?

Yoland Nel (3:54)

So the Emiratis lead the investigation. This was their plane that was involved. And we're told that the co-pilot who was arrested when the plane landed in Saudi Arabia was taken back to the United Arab Emirates. The chief prosecutor there said to be looking into whether this was indeed a terrorist attack, whether this man was acting alone. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come out saying that this was Islamist radical indoctrination that the man had been through and said that he was clearly suicidal from what was being said on board. We know that the Israeli security agencies have been speaking to the passengers who are on board the plane collecting their testimony and that Israel is participating in this investigation. President Trump also was asked about this by journalists, you know, what was going on, and he said that if a ram was found to be involved, then it would be hit hard.