{"id":87149,"date":"2026-10-01T07:13:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=87149"},"modified":"2026-10-01T07:15:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:15:29","slug":"pilot-hailed-as-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/pilot-hailed-as-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot Hailed As Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>From AP:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/bc09b0e\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8640x5760+0+0\/resize\/599x399!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Ffe%2Fec%2Fc4c734fba32839dabdd089d22d53%2F06d6fd6a1ebe4a36bb227381c33bc617\" alt=\"Israeli passengers who had been aboard a FlyDubai aircraft that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia are welcomed at the arrivals gate at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ohad Zwigenberg)\" \/><\/p>\n<p>An Indian airline captain who was at the controls of a FlyDubai flight when his copilot stabbed him in <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/israel-saudi-arabia-dubai-emergency-landing-fd1835479898f2f944792913af7cbce6\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\">an apparent attempt to crash the plane<\/a><\/span> has been hailed as a hero, with his actions to thwart the disaster drawing praise from world leaders and those who knew him.<\/p>\n<p>Capt. Smit Machchhar, who is from India\u2019s financial hub of Mumbai, was seriously injured in Wednesday\u2019s attack. Passengers described how the pilot still managed to open the cockpit door to let them in. They restrained the attacker while the Boeing 737 descended sharply, according to witnesses and Israeli authorities.\u00a0The attack forced the <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/emergency-landing-israel-attack-hijacking-aircraft-a71ea8173678705fb1895539b6e4eb24\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\">flight carrying 174 people from Dubai<\/a><\/span>, United Arab Emirates, to Tel Aviv, Israel, to make an emergency landing in Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From AP: An Indian airline captain who was at the controls of a FlyDubai flight when his copilot stabbed him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-87149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87149"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87151,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87149\/revisions\/87151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}