Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invited Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participate in Israel’s Independence Day ceremony next year, a symbolic honour that comes days after Machchhar helped prevent a Flydubai flight from crashing during a violent cockpit attack. The invitation followed Netanyahu’s conversation with the Indian captain on Saturday, as investigators in the UAE described the September 30 incident aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073 as an attempted terrorist attack carried out with a crash axe.
Praising the pilot Smit Machchhar’s actions during the mid-air emergency, Netanyahu said he wanted Machchhar and PM Modi to take part in the ceremony scheduled for May 2027.
“I want to invite you and my dear friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to light a celebratory flame on our next Independence Day. You are a true hero of the brave peoples of India and Israel, and you’re a hero of the entire world. torchbearers for the ceremony are not selected solely by the prime minister While Netanyahu’s invitation underscores the significance Israel attaches to Machchhar’s actions. Several minutes later, while Machchhar was facing forward, he was struck from behind. “It was a normal flight, and he wanted to pray, which is not out of the ordinary. And I was completely blurred out. He managed to open the cockpit door once, but it was quickly shut again.
Because of his initial blows, my vision was almost like nothing, “I did try to stop him, but.
I wish you a very speedy and complete recovery,” Netanyahu told Machchhar. Candidates are considered by a public advisory committee before receiving ministerial approval, according to The Times of Israel. The flight had been proceeding normally when the co-pilot informed him that he wanted to pray, according to the captain. out of respect, I was looking at the front, not at the back, and suddenly there was a big blow to the back of my head,” Machchhar said While he was praying. And at that point, the next feeling that I had was that the aircraft was sharply going down,” he said. Despite his injuries, Machchhar said he continued trying to regain control of the situation.
