Gujarat to honor FlyDubai captain after alleged cockpit stabbing

Captain Smit Machchhar is to receive Gujarat’s Vishisht Gujarat Garima Award after surviving a stabbing aboard a FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Israel, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel announced Thursday. The attack and the captain’s response have drawn praise, but the accounts provided do not include independent findings establishing the sequence or motive. Machchhar was seriously injured and was receiving medical treatment at a hospital in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh said. A report said he was being airlifted to Dubai for further care, but the available information does not confirm that the transfer was completed or provide a later update on his condition. The flight transmitted emergency signals and diverted to Tabuk, where it landed safely, according to one account. That report said the aircraft descended more than 17,000 feet from an altitude of 34,000 feet before landing. The figures and sequence were not independently confirmed in the material reviewed. Reports said Machchhar’s copilot allegedly attacked him in the cockpit.