10/05/2026

FlyDubai pilot attacked by co-pilot speaks out

FlyDubai pilot Smit Machchhar described his desperate struggle last week to save himself and the 173 other people on board the plane after his co-pilot attacked him with an axe in the cockpit. “I managed to open the door, and then everyone else came in," he told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his hospital bed. Passengers and crew subdued the attacker and pulled the plane out of a steep dive. Pilots traveling as passengers then landed the Israel-bound plane safely in Saudi Arabia.

■Class discussion: The pilot said his Hindu faith gave him the strength to open the cockpit door. Do you think the co-pilot thought his faith somehow justified an attempt to kill himself and the plane’s Israeli passengers? Should religious differences and prejudices ever be used to excuse violent attacks or warfare? Can people of different faiths also join together to save themselves from disaster as they did on the FlyDubai flight? Can we eliminate religious intolerance? How?