Friday 2nd October: Captain Smit Machchhar, the Flydubai pilot credited with saving the 174 people on board flight FZ1073, has revealed what carried him through the attack: the Hanuman Chalisa.
Speaking to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi by video call from his hospital bed, Captain Machchhar described being stabbed in the cockpit on the Dubai to Tel Aviv flight and realising the aircraft was descending. He said he recites the Hanuman Chalisa whenever he is in pain, and during the struggle, “at that time too, I only kept reciting the Hanuman Chalisa.” He then made one final push to open the cockpit door so passengers and crew could intervene.
He told the Prime Minister he recites it every day with his two-year-old son on his lap, and that although he lives outside India, he continues to live by its values and culture. Prime Minister Modi told him he had shown the world that “Indians do not take lives, Indians save lives.”
Journalist Amjad Taha wrote that the Captain faced danger with the courage of Arjuna and “the resolve of Hanuman when duty called.” On Saturday, Dubai’s Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, visited him in hospital and said the UAE was proud to count him as part of its story.
The Hanuman Chalisa, composed by Goswami Tulsidas, is a forty-verse hymn honouring Bhagavan Hanuman’s strength, courage and devotion to Bhagavan Rama. Millions of Hindus recite it daily. In Surat (Gujarat, India), devotees have already gathered for a special recitation for the Captain’s recovery.
The circumstances of the attack remain under formal investigation.