Netanyahu Invites PM Modi, Captain Smit Machchhar to Light Israel Independence Day Flame
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and flydubai Captain Smit Machchhar to take part in Israel’s next Independence Day ceremony by lighting a celebratory flame, an honour he described as the highest accorded on that occasion and one usually reserved for Israeli citizens.
The invitation came during a telephone call on Saturday, 3 October 2026, while Captain Machchhar, 38, was in hospital in the United Arab Emirates receiving treatment after a cockpit attack aboard a flydubai aircraft. Excerpts of the call were released by the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel.
Speaking to the pilot, Netanyahu said: “Captain, I want to invite you and my dear friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to light a celebratory flame on our next Independence Day. You are a true hero of the brave peoples of India and Israel, and you’re a hero of the entire world. I wish you a very speedy and complete recovery.”
He said the distinction was “our highest honour that we give on our Independence Day” and that it is “usually reserved for Israeli citizens,” adding that “in this case, all the citizens of Israel will embrace you.” Netanyahu also said he was struck by the captain’s “courage” and “coolness of judgment under impossible conditions,” and said Machchhar and those who helped him had “saved so many souls” and, in his words, “saved the spirit of the world.”
The torch-lighting ceremony is held at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem and marks the transition from Memorial Day to Independence Day. Israel’s next Independence Day falls in May 2027. At the time of writing, no official response from the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi had been reported.
The 30 September cockpit attack
The call followed the 30 September 2026 attack aboard flydubai Flight FZ1073, which was flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv with 174 passengers on board. According to the account described in reports, the Omani co-pilot, identified as Hamam al-Hammami, allegedly assaulted Captain Machchhar in the cockpit with a crash axe, an emergency tool kept in the flight deck.
In the version of events Machchhar gave Netanyahu, the co-pilot had asked to pray. Out of respect, the captain looked ahead and did not turn around. After about four to five minutes, he felt a heavy blow to the back of his head, followed by more strikes. Despite the injuries, he managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew waiting outside to enter and overpower the attacker. Reserve pilots on board then took control of the aircraft. The plane transmitted emergency signals, descended rapidly from cruising altitude and made an emergency landing at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia.
The UAE Attorney General has described the incident as a terrorist attack and said the assault was planned. Reports have also said the co-pilot had earlier been barred from flying by Oman over radical views. Captain Machchhar received initial treatment in Tabuk before being moved to a hospital in Abu Dhabi, where he has been reported to be in a stable condition.
Background of the pilot
Captain Machchhar is an Indian national of Gujarati origin. He joined flydubai as a direct-entry captain in June 2022 after nearly 11 years with SpiceJet. He is a Boeing 737 pilot with about 17 years of flying experience, including 11 years as a captain.
Prime Minister Modi had earlier spoken to him by video call and commended the decisions he took “in a fraction of a second” that helped save those on board. Netanyahu had also publicly praised the captain in the days after the landing, crediting his actions, together with those of passengers and crew, with preventing a larger disaster.
The invitation has placed an Indian commercial pilot, and the Indian Prime Minister, at the centre of a ceremony that Israel treats as a national honour, while also adding a further public strand to the close political relationship between New Delhi and Jerusalem.
