The plane was high in the sky. Captain Smit Machchhar flew it. The man next to him was the second pilot. He asked to pray. The captain said yes. He did not look back. Then something hit his head very hard.
Machchhar is from India. On 30 September 2026, the plane was flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv. It had 174 passengers and six crew. The second pilot was Hamam al-Hammami. He is from Oman. He hit the captain with an axe. He made the plane go down fast.
The plane fell 16,000 feet in about 30 seconds.
The second pilot hit the captain again and again. The captain was badly hurt. But he moved to the door. This is the cockpit door. The cockpit is the small room for the pilots. The captain said he had “one more fight left.” He opened the door. Now the passengers could help.
The passengers saw blood everywhere. One man pulled the second pilot out. Other people fought with him. They stopped him.
Two other pilots sat on the plane. They did not work on this flight. They went into the cockpit. They flew the plane.
The plane landed in Tabuk, in Saudi Arabia. All 180 people on the plane lived.
The captain went to the hospital. On 2 October, Narendra Modi called him. Modi is the leader of India.
The captain also talked to Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is the leader of Israel. The captain told him about the door. He said he could not let the passengers die.