Flydubai captain stabbed by co-pilot mid-flight had 15 years in aviation, trained in New Zealand

On September 30, 2026, a co-pilot made a murderous knife attack in the cockpit of a Flydubai flight (FZ1073) travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Captain Smit Machhar, who was left drenched in blood, has suddenly become a name discussed around the world. Even before this incident, he had nearly 15 years of long and successful experience in commercial aviation.

Machhar, who has ties to Mumbai, is a highly experienced Boeing 737 pilot. The attack came when the aircraft was at 35,000 feet. Despite being seriously injured, he did not lose courage. His courage saved the lives of 180 passengers on board, including 27 children. Machhar regained control of the aircraft and carried out a safe emergency landing.

For many pilots, becoming a pilot is a childhood dream, but that was not so for Machhar. He said in a podcast that as a child he had not even thought of becoming a pilot. He comes from a business family and wanted to grow up and take the family business forward.

The family business was textiles, so after school he studied textile engineering. He then began an MBA to understand the finer points of business.

At just 19, he attended an aviation seminar, and his life changed direction from there. He firmly decided at that seminar to become a commercial pilot. When he told his family, his mother became very worried about his safety. His father gave him full freedom to choose his own career and explore pilot training.

When Machhar trained as a pilot, the whole training cost about Rs 16 lakh to Rs 17 lakh. Today the same cost is around Rs 80 lakh.

He went to New Zealand for his main flying training. Notably, until he went to New Zealand he had flown very little even as a passenger. After completing his CPL, or commercial pilot licence, in New Zealand, he completed specialised Boeing 737 training at the FSTC in Gurugram (Manesar), India.

After training, his first official flight was from Bengaluru to Delhi. According to Machhar, on that very first flight he felt not the joy or thrill of flying but the heavy pressure of responsibility. The reason was that he was on probation and a senior examiner was with him in the cockpit.

Captain Machhar began his career with SpiceJet in June 2011. Over about 11 years he rose to senior commander and then to the important post of line training captain. As a line training captain, he trained and also evaluated many new pilots. At SpiceJet he flew more than 6,400 hours as pilot-in-command (captain).

In June 2022 he joined the international airline Flydubai, where he was appointed as a direct entry captain. He has more than 9,750 hours of experience flying the Boeing 737, including the B737-800 and B737 MAX 8/9. Besides Boeing 737 operations, he is also well versed in crew resource management, flight standards, pilot assessment and mentoring.

Official details of Captain Machhar's own salary have not been made public. However, in a podcast he gave an estimate of pilots' salaries in the Indian aviation sector. According to him, a new pilot (junior/first officer) gets Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh a month, a senior first officer Rs 4 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh a month, and a captain (captain/commander level) Rs 6 lakh to Rs 10 lakh a month or more.