Times of India ·
Smit-ten: World in love with heroic Indian pilot who saved Israelis and beat social media hijacking
By Chidanand Rajghatta||4 min read at Times of India
Model summary
not written by Times of India · not verifiedGenerated October 1, 2026
- Following a mid-air emergency on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv involving an attempted hijacking, Indian pilot Captain Smit Macchchar was widely praised for his heroism in subduing the attacker. Despite initial social media misinformation and conspiracy theories, official confirmation from Israeli leadership solidified recognition of the pilot's actions as a crucial factor in saving the aircraft.
This is an AI-estimated analysis and may not reflect the article's actual intent or the publisher's editorial position.
Sign in to give feedbackTOI correspondent from Washington: The old saying that lies go halfway across the world before truth gets its shoes on was on full display in the hours after the Fly Dubai hijacking episode. What began as a genuine mid-air emergency on flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv rapidly spawned a swirl of inaccurate claims, misidentifications, and , and it wasn’t until Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went public with details of the heroic act by the pilot, Capt Smit Macchchar, whom he clearly identified as Indian, that the world began to acknowledge an…
Even US President Donald Trump briefly acknowledged the bravery of the pilot before digressing into a vivid description of how the attacker was taken down by Israeli passengers. “The pilot, in bad shape, had the sense to open the door!” Trump said, calling him a “hero” and adding, “it seems as though the copilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job”.
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