The plane went into a steep dive, plummeting more than 14,000 ft. in 30 seconds, slinging screaming passengers from their seats. Bleeding profusely from cuts to his hands and head, Machchhar managed to send out three alerts to the ground: a so-called 7700 alarm, indicating a “general emergency;” then a 7500, indicating “unlawful interference;” then another 7700. More importantly, he was able to unlatch and open the locked cockpit door, tumbling into the galley area at the front of the plane, while still wrestling with his co-pilot.
In an interview with Fox News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was too soon to know if the co-pilot were acting in coordination with Iran, with which Israel is currently at war, in an act of organized terrorism, “but he obviously hated Israelis because he was going to kill about 170 of them on the plane, killing himself too.”
Machchhar, meantime, is being hailed a hero on the international stage. “Captain Smit Machchhar has shown the world the highest form of courage,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X. “Without fearing for his own life, he fought valiantly and prevented another 9/11 like attack from happening.”
The early reports that the weapon used in the attack was a knife raised questions, since the popular belief is that pilots and crew go through the same security screening passengers do. But that’s not the case, according to experts.
Other kinds of screening—for mental health, criminal background, and potential association with terrorist or other criminal organizations—is more rigorous, but standards vary from country to country. “A new pilot does go through a criminal history record check to see if they've ever been arrested or convicted of a set of 28 different crimes,” says Price of the U.S. process. “They also go through what's called a security threat assessment, which is a TSA check to see if they are on any sort of list that might require them to not receive a badge to the airline, which means they can't fly for the airline.”
International standards do call for, at a minimum, this level of mental health screening, but standards and enforcement vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
FlyDubai passengers arriving in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sept. 30, 2026. —Nir Keidar/Anadolu—Getty ImagesConcerns over cockpit barriers intended to close a 9/11 security gap
Additionally, in the U.S., new Federal Aviation Administration rules require what is called a “secondary cockpit barrier” on all newly-manufactured commercial planes delivered to U.S. airlines. The rule, which doesn’t apply to existing planes, is set to add an extra layer of security at the head of the plane and, hopefully, prevent any potential bad actors from gaining access to the cockpit. But again, what if the danger lies within the cockpit?
On balance, the risk of another such mutinous crew member trying to commandeer a plane is less than the reward that comes from preventing hijackers from seizing the cockpits as they did aboard four flights 25 years ago. But the danger of an incident like yesterday’s ending catastrophically is decidedly nonzero.
“It has almost never happened,” Price says, “but it has happened.”
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