‘We had no idea if he would survive. We started crying a lot’: Smit Machchhar’s family recalls agonising wait on September 30

For Captain Smit Machchhar’s parents, September 30 was not the day their son became a hero. It was the day they learnt that their only child had been badly injured in a mid-air attack and was lying in a military hospital in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, while they struggled to find a way to reach him.

As the world hailed the flydubai pilot for helping avert a potential disaster involving 174 people, his parents in Mumbai were facing a very different reality: hours of uncertainty over whether their son would survive, followed by a frantic journey to his bedside.

The family eventually flew to Dubai on Thursday, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Smit’s father, Upendra Machchhar, and assured him that he would be able to speak to his son before the day ended. By then, the Indian Embassy had informed Smit’s wife, Sonal, that he had been airlifted from Saudi Arabia to Abu Dhabi on the private aircraft of the Dubai ruler.


The family then travelled to Abu Dhabi, where Upendra finally saw his son. The relief was immediate, although Smit’s recovery is expected to take time.

“After yesterday’s visit to the hospital, I am now at some comfort level and believe that everything is going to be fine. Smit also tells me, ‘Give me some time and I’m going to be all good’,” Upendra told The Times of India.

The hospital has told the family that Smit could need at least another eight days of treatment before his condition is reviewed for discharge. His father said the wounds were deep but described the treatment as “fantastic”.

As the world saw a hero, his family saw their son

The family’s anxiety unfolded even as Smit’s actions aboard the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight were being widely praised.

PTI reported that the Mumbai-born pilot had more than 13 years of commercial flying experience and had logged over 9,500 flight hours. He had spent more than 11 years with SpiceJet before joining flydubai as a captain in June 2022.

That experience, however, tells only one part of Smit’s story. Long before he became the pilot at the centre of an international aviation incident, he was expected to join his family’s textile business in Mumbai.

Smit had studied at SASMIRA and later pursued management studies before beginning to work with his father at the family factory. But the economics of the business troubled him, Upendra said.

“He told me, ‘We shell out more every day than what we earn.’ I told him, this is how this business works; it has been like this for generations. But he wanted to change a few things,” he said.

Then came a very different proposition.

Smit told his father he had a dream he wanted to pursue: flying. Upendra initially worried about the cost but agreed on the condition that his son would not waste the family’s money.

Smit went to New Zealand for pilot training and completed it in 10 months. He later travelled to London for Boeing 737 type-rating training after his mentor suggested the additional qualification, an investment of about Rs 26 lakh.

He subsequently joined SpiceJet, where he spent more than a decade. PTI has separately quoted a former colleague describing Machchhar as a “good person” and noted that he had served as a Line Training Captain, a senior role involving the mentoring and evaluation of other pilots.

In 2022, Smit moved to flydubai after receiving an interview call from the airline. He eventually moved to Dubai with his wife, Sonal. For the past four years, his parents have split their time between Mumbai and Dubai, spending roughly six months in each city.

Upendra was due to return to Dubai on October 25. Instead, he found himself making the journey weeks earlier after receiving the phone call every parent dreads.

From a pilot’s instinct to a family’s long wait

For Sonal, the first hours after the attack were spent alone with uncertainty over her husband’s condition. When she later recounted the experience to his parents, the emotional toll became overwhelming.

“We started crying a lot,” Upendra said.

But even as the family tried to process what had happened, they decided not to keep reliving the attack.

“We decided not to speak of the incident,” Upendra said.

Instead, their focus shifted to recovery.

Upendra said the deep cuts had left his son in considerable pain, but Smit continued to maintain his composure when speaking to world leaders who called him after the incident.

“The cuts are deep, and he is in terrible pain. But when leaders of nations speak to him, he gathers himself and responds with remarkable calm,” he said.

For his father, that composure is not something Smit acquired in the cockpit. It is part of the instinct that has shaped him since childhood, which was to put others before himself.

“If we have a family event and if he has to go to mentor another pilot or go to conduct a pilot test, he will prioritise that and ask the family to push the function by an hour or so,” Upendra said.

PTI reported after the incident that former colleagues had also spoken of Machchhar’s experience and knowledge of aviation, including his work as a Line Training Captain.

For now, however, none of that matters much to his parents. The international praise, the descriptions of him as a hero and the attention surrounding the September 30 incident have all been pushed into the background.

Their immediate goal is simpler: for Smit to heal, walk out of the hospital and return home.

“The God who saved him will also decide the course of his life ahead. Right now, we are 100% positive that God will do what is best for him,” Upendra said.