Sanjiv Kapoor, Acting CEO, flyadeal, and Executive VP (Strategy), Saudia Group, has praised flydubai pilot Captain Smit Machchar’s heroic feat in the skies that prevented an alleged attempt by his co-pilot to crash the aircraft.
Captain Smit Machchhar saved the lives of over 170 passengers and crew members and is currently recovering in the hospital.
“What Captain Smit Machchhar did was sheer heroic activity. It was ultimate heroism. It could have been much worse. Being an Indian, obviously, all Indians are very proud of his bravery. All Indians derive a lot of pride and joy from his action. Pilots are a very special breed. They are extraordinary. Piloting metal tubes through the sky is a very complex operation. They choose to make this their career, so by nature, they have more risk appetite. They are bolder, and they are different personalities. READ | flyadeal Launches Mumbai-Riyadh Service As Saudi Carriers Bet Big On India “I would expect no less from such a special cadre of professionals. When there is a threat like this, to react the way Captain Smit did is heroic. It made everybody look up and say, ‘wow’. The entire aviation fraternity is proud of him and proud of what he represents, and I think he represents the innate high-courage nature of pilots,” Kapoor added. Something had to go wrong, and then regulation would come up with new rules and some procedure to prevent that from happening again…From what happened with the flydubai flight, what we have learnt is to be more careful. We have to be careful about entering and exiting the cockpit, when to open it and when to close it, and what you can do to prevent anything from happening. “If one of the pilots must go to the lavatory, there is a procedure where the cabin crew blocks the area and guards the door. There are a lot of procedures and this is going to be enhanced as we move forward. What went wrong there? How can we avoid it? This is a highly unusual case, and we must learn from it. We must screen our pilots, and we are doing it at the top level, I assure you. And we need to make sure that we pick the right personality before things go wrong. It is our job to understand it, analyse it, study it to ensure that the person in the cockpit is fit and is at the top level of this profession. READ | flydubai Co-Pilot Planned To Execute Attack In July. “We go through their entire history, their education, we verify their licence and study their personality. In addition, at flyadeal, before hiring a pilot, we put them through a personality and psychological test. This tells us a lot about the pilot. On the other side, the general authority of civil aviation does background checks on pilots, be it at flyadeal or Saudia or other airline operators in the world. And if they have a red flag, which has never happened before, they send us the name of the pilot to put him on freeze until they complete further evaluations. “So, for the background check, I am sure in India and also Saudi Arabia, they are very careful when it comes to that area. They take all the steps before moving forward. We do our own background checks, and the government does its own background checks. As an airline, after that, we do personality and psychological tests for pilots during interviews. We check his background in his airline if he is a foreign pilot. We take a certificate of no safety incident and of good behaviour. So all of those pilots go through a very extensive screening before we hire them and put them in our cockpit. So from that area, I assure you, that we are going above and beyond when it comes to our pilot screening,” Captain Bahri added.
The Indian pilot, who saved the lives of over 170 passengers and crew members, is currently recovering in the hospital after being attacked by his co-pilot, Omani national Hamam Alhammami, with the cock while flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
They are a different breed,” Sanjiv Kapoor said. Captain Abdulaziz Bahri, Chief Operating Officer, flyadeal said, “When I was pursuing a master’s degree in flying in the United States, a professor told me that aviation regulations are written in blood. This Stopped Him Captain Abdulaziz Bahri also said that Saudi Arabia is very strict when it comes to screening for pilots. Pilot background is one of the main priorities for the general authority of civil aviation and for any airline,” Captain Abdulaziz Bahri said.
