2026-10-04 · NBC News Top Stories
🔮 The flight captain, Indian national Smit Machchhar, said Friday from a hospital in Abu Dhabi that he had been severely injured and could sense the aircraft descending before he managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to intervene.
“I was acting for my own life, but at the same time, I knew I couldn’t let all of them die,” he said on a video call released by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Raf Sanchez and Paul Goldman reported from Tel Aviv. assertive