MUMBAI: Alomost a year before he was injured in a mid-air confrontation aboard a flydubai flight, Captain Smit Machchhar had spoken about one of the most important roles of cabin crew — keeping passengers safe when something goes wrong in the air.“When something goes wrong in the air, who is going to save your life? The crew can save your life,” Machchhar said during a podcast Bonafide Banter with Zalak Mehta.Those words have taken on a new significance after Machchhar was injured during an altercation with his Omani co-pilot aboard flydubai Flight FZ1073, which was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv.The aircraft carrying 174 passengers suffered a dramatic loss of altitude during the incident before eventually making an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
‘They can save your life’
In the podcast, Machchhar explained that cabin crew undergo rigorous training for safety and emergency procedures and are prepared to assist passengers during medical emergencies.He said having a doctor on board during a medical emergency was fortunate, but cabin crew were the people passengers relied on first. Their training includes first aid and checking vital signs, he said.“See, as a pilot what we can do is we can just get them professional help as soon as possible,” Machchhar said while recalling medical emergencies he had handled during flights.He also recalled a particularly challenging incident in which a pregnant passenger went into premature labour during a flight.
Baby born during flight
Machchhar said the crew alerted the cockpit after the passenger began experiencing what appeared to be labour pains. The crew soon informed him that the situation was advancing towards a delivery.He and the first officer immediately began preparing for a possible diversion. They checked the nearest airfields, weather conditions and operational limitations and prepared for an approach.Within minutes, the crew informed the cockpit that the baby had been born.Machchhar said the incident required close coordination between the cabin crew and cockpit. The crew assisted the mother and baby, while paramedics were arranged on the ground before landing. Both mother and baby were fine after the aircraft landed, he said.“It was methodical. It was quick. It was as quick as it should have been,” Machchhar said while describing how the crew handled the emergency.That interview, recorded almost a year before the flydubai incident, is now drawing attention for another reason.Machchhar had spoken at length about how pilots and cabin crew respond when things suddenly go wrong in the air. He had stressed that while pilots have different qualifications, cabin crew undergo extensive training and play a crucial role in protecting passengers.
From podcast words to cockpit crisis
Machchhar is a Mumbai-born pilot who trained in Gurgaon and later joined SpiceJet, where he served as a commander and line training captain. He joined flydubai in June 2022 as a direct-entry captain and has more than 9,750 flying hours, according to his Linkdin profile.On Wednesday, Machchhar was attacked by his co-pilot while the aircraft was approaching Israel. The aircraft plunged thousands of feet before the situation in the cockpit was brought under control.Passengers and crew intervened, while Machchhar, despite being injured, was able to help unlock the cockpit door.The aircraft eventually landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.A year earlier, Machchhar had summed up the role of the people inside an aircraft during an emergency in simple terms: when something goes wrong in the air, the crew can save your life.
