Israeli and Indian leaders hail pilot for saving passengers

The leaders of Israel and India hailed Indian pilot Smit Machchhar as a hero for saving passengers after he was stabbed by his colleague in an alleged attempt to crash the FlyDubai plane.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said nearly all passengers on the flight were Israeli. Adding, "as they approached the country, one of the pilots stabbed

the other pilot, and apparently, he tried to crash the plane with its occupants."

Netanyahu met with one of the passengers who had broken into the cockpit with one of the crew members to neutralise the situation, and told him "You're a hero."

The passenger, Yaniv Hayoun was still wearing a blood stained white shirt when he met with the premier.

"I must apologise," Yaniv told Netanyahu. "I asked 10 times for my suitcases to change clothes for this meeting."

Netanyahu said the plane landed safely at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia adding, the pilot who stabbed his co-pilot was arrested and is being questioned by the Saudi authorities.

In Washington, US President Donald Trump was asked by reporters whether he had spoken to the Israeli prime minister.

"I did speak to Bibi Netanyahu at length about this event, and it seems as though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job.

And he stabbed the pilot. The pilot was in very bad shape. And I guess he still is in very bad shape.

He was able to fall back and get the door open and scream. And a plumber, an Israeli plumber, never flew a plane, was rarely in planes, very rarely flew he ripped this guy out of the seat, threw him back.

The crowd got him. The passengers got him, grabbed him. And having never flown a plane, he took the stick, lifted it up and levelled out the plane

Now this is the story that I heard. I don't know if it's true, but that's the story that I got from Bibi."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also praised his compatriot in a social media post.

Modi said the pilot showed "immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of the others."