Who is the 'hero' Indian pilot who was stabbed on Israel-bound flight?

The pilot who was stabbed on an Israel-bound flight on Wednesday has been identified as Indian national Capt Smit Machchhar.

Capt Machchhar was attacked by another pilot onboard a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv, forcing the plane to divert to Saudi Arabia.

The captain, who has been hailed as a "true hero" by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was taken to a hospital in Tabuk, a city in north-western Saudi Arabia, where he remains in a stable condition according to the Indian embassy in Riyadh.

Writing on X, Netanyahu said Capt Machchhar "saved the lives of 174 people" and prevented "a catastrophic mid-air disaster".

Capt Machchhar grew up in the Indian city of Mumbai, where his parents still live. In 2008, he joined Mainland Air, an aviation college in New Zealand's Dunedin, before joining Indian airline SpiceJet as a commercial pilot three years later. He moved to Dubai and joined Flydubai in 2022, having become an experienced pilot.

Speaking to the BBC, Philip Kean, the CEO of Mainland Air, said he remembers Capt Machchhar as a man who would remain calm in a crisis.

"We trained him for forced landing - not this kind of situation, which is very, very rare," Kean said. "It was a long time back but he came across as a good and honest worker."

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