Hero FlyDubai pilot who fought back against attacker identified as Indian Capt Smit Machchhar

An Israeli mother and her two children described the traumatic experience of witnessing blood and screams during Wednesday’s attempted hijacking of FlyDubai flight 1073 in a Thursday interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner.

“What can I say, it was a horrifying situation, it felt like forever,” Lital Shahar recalled.

Lital, who was interviewed alongside her 14-year-old daughter Hila and 11-year-old daughter Eliya, explained that she had both girls and their two other sisters, ages 7 and 5, on the flight.

Lital said they were “really traumatized from what happened.”

“I was experiencing a lot of fear because I didn’t really understand what was happening,” 11-year-old Eliya told Faulkner. “I was going through lots of thoughts of hope, getting back home, and another thought of being like ‘I don’t want to die.’

“There was a lot of screams, a lot of blood, a lot of things that [made me] wish I wouldn’t go on the flight,” Eliya added.

Lital described the exact moment she found out something was wrong.

“Suddenly there was a woman, [who] came out of business class and started screaming. There was lots of blood. ‘He stabbed him, he stabbed him!’” Lital recounted the woman shouting.

“The Israeli men, the heroes that were on the plane, jumped into action,” she continued. “Yaniv, the one that everyone is saying now and talking about, was sitting a row behind me, and was so quick I didn’t even see him.

“I just saw him coming back after everything kind of finished, full with blood on his clothes. And the other men were in the first rows so I didn’t see them as well. They were really heroic. And Captain Smith was able, in his last powers, to open the door of the cockpit that saved us all. We are so grateful for him as well,” Lital added.

The mother of four said the situation was not only a miracle, but a culmination of multiple miracles.

“In that moment we realized, I realized, that we are in the hands of God, and he’s the only one who can save us now. And definitely the miracles that were on that plane… miracles. It was miracle in a miracle,” Lital said.

“What we had there, it’s like a Bible scene. The best writers in Hollywood wouldn’t be able to write such a script…We need to thank God for his good and his kindness and his mercy that he has,” she told Faulkner.

The Indian pilot being credited with helping save the lives of 174 passengers after being stabbed on a FlyDubai aircraft heading to Israel has "shown the world the highest form of courage," India’s prime minister said.

Narendra Modi said Thursday that Captain Smit Machchhar, "without fearing for his own life," had "fought valiantly and prevented another 9/11-like attack from happening" on Wednesday onboard FlyDubai Flight FZ1073, which had to make an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Modi added that India is saluting Machchhar and is "praying for his wellbeing." The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia described the "brave" pilot as being in stable condition after being taken to a hospital.

This is an excerpt from a story by Greg Norman-Diamond

A former advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it's clear that the copilot who stabbed the pilot during Wednesdays FlyDubai incident was ideologically motivated.

"As the hours go on and the copilot continues under the Saudi investigation, it's becoming clearer and clearer that indeed he was ideologically motivated, this wasn't a suicidal person," Caroline Glick, Netanyahu's former foreign affairs advisor, told Fox News' Harris Faulkner in an exclusive interview Thursday.

"This wasn't somebody who just happened to take along by mistake, or as collateral damage, he wanted to take down 173 other people together with him when he was committing suicide but this was actually deliberate and it was deliberately against Israelis," she said.

"The real question that most people are asking right now is was he acting on behalf of a terrorist organization, on behalf of a terrorist regime?" Glick wondered.

Netanyahu himself told Fox & Friends on Thursday it was too early to say whether or not the copilot, who has only been identified as an Omani national, was supported by Iran or a terror group, though Netanyahu did say he had been radicalized by Islamist indoctrination.

A mother and daughter onboard FlyDubai flight 1073 alerted the rest of the plane to the stabbing incident in the flight's cockpit, a passenger told Fox News' America's Newsroom in an exclusive Thursday interview.

"There was a woman with a daughter going to the toilet, and a few seconds after that, she pulled her daughter back to the passenger area, screaming, 'He stabbed the pilot! He stabbed the pilot!'" Daniel Schlichter, a passenger sitting in the second row of the flight, recounted.

"A few seconds after that, I heard a very violent fight coming from the cockpit area. The door was a little bit open, which is standardly not a sound that you hear from the cockpit. I immediately understood that there was a situation going on inside. Right after that, three Israelis sitting behind me ran to the cockpit area. The pilot was pushing the terrorist out of the cockpit room, and these three guys pulled him out, got control of him, and tackled him to the ground," he continued.

Schlichter revealed that passengers used in-flight headphone wires to tie up the attackers hands and feet after subduing him.

He then recalled the terrifying moments in which the plane was plummeting to the ground, recounting how it felt like the ground was rapidly approaching.

"From that moment, the airplane was going down rapidly. It felt like 9/11 for sure—that's what I was feeling. I was looking out the window, seeing the desert and the ground getting closer to me, and I understood there was a very big chance we would lose our lives," he said.

After stepping off the plane, he said he realized he was part of something special. "Only after stepping off the airplane and seeing parts of the tail damaged or missing do you clearly understand that it was 100% a miracle," he told Fox News' Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino.

FlyDubai has temporarily suspended all flights to and from Israel in the wake of Wednesday's mid-flight stabbing, the company announced Wednesday.

The airline, which operates the flight in which an Omani national copilot stabbed the primary pilot before being subdued by passengers, has halted flights in Israel to allow for invesitgations.

"This temporary suspension will allow the relevant authorities to continue their work and establish all the facts surrounding the incident," the company wrote in a statement on its website.

"The safety and wellbeing of our passengers, crew and operations remain our highest priority," the statement added.

Capt. Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who was stabbed by his copilot during a Wednesday attack onboard FlyDubai flight 1073, was stabbed in the head and sustained other severe injuries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in an exclusive Thursday interview with Fox & Friends.

"He was stabbed in the head, and his arm was basically split in two. And there was a lot of blood," Netanyahu told Fox & Friends.

One Israeli on board the flight, a dentist, began treating Machchhar's injuries while other passengers subdued his attacker, Netanyahu recounted.

"He gave an immediate treatment to this brave Indian pilot who was attacked by the by this Omani pilot, and then he says, 'listen, hold on for a second.' He rushes back to his wife, tells her, 'Here's your job, you. I'm going back in there. You take care of the passengers.' And that's the way it worked. It was just incredible teamwork," Netanyahu said.

After Machchhar was stabilized at a hospital in Saudi Arabia near where the plane made an emergency landing, he was airlifted to a hospital in Doha, UAE, where he is currently receiving treatment. He is reportedly safe.

"We salute the bravery of Captain Smit Machchhar, who, in spite of being gravely injured, showed remarkable courage that saved the lives of many. He is receiving medical attention and is safe. We wish and pray for his speedy recovery. The nation proudly stands with him," Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs, wrote in a Wednesday post on X.

The copilot who stabbed the pilot in the cockpit of FlyDubai flight 1073 was an Omani national who went through "Islamist radical indoctrination," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in a Thursday interview with Fox & Friends.

"The attacker, the copilot who attacked the captain, is now being interrogated, but here's what we do know: First, we know that, he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination," Netanyahu told Fox & Friends.

"That appears to be something we're gathering from the information – his personal information," he added

Netanyahu said the pilot slipped through a loophole in a rule that states pilots flying to Israel can't be from countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

"Well, he was an Omani national and we have constraints that say you can't have pilots from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel," he told Fox & Friends.

"So obviously he was able to go through that. So there's a loophole there: How to make sure that we screened pilots in advance," he continued.

"And that's what we did, by the way, with the pilots that came to take our passengers from Saudi Arabia to Israel: We checked their background, but obviously there was a loophole here, and we're taking care of that, among other things."

Israel and the United Arab Emirates are investigating whether Wednesday's apparent hijacking was a terrorist incident.

"We'll be following and possibly also participating in this investigation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Wednesday.

Netanyahu also revealed that Israel will be investigating if the attacker was backed by Iran.

"We'll get to the root of this attacker, whether he had accomplices, whether Iran was behind it. I think we'll find out very soon," he said.

Israel's Ambassador to the UAE Yossi Avraham Shelley reportedly told Reuters that it's "too early to draw conclusions."

The copilot, whose identity officials have not yet released, has been identified as an Omani national.

Reuters contributed to this post.

An Israeli military veteran named Tal who was a passenger on the FlyDubai flight that plummeted over 16,000 feet after its copilot stabbed the pilot in an apparent attempted hijacking told Fox & Friends his story of witnessing first-hand the attempted hijacking and subsequent thwarting.

"What I saw was one of the ladies who came out of the toilet with her daughter screaming. I actually had my headphones on, so I pulled them out. Immediately, we realized the aircraft started bouncing from left to right. That's when everything started happening, and some people ran to the front," Tal, who chose not to reveal his last name, told Fox & Friends.

Tal explained that when he began walking towards the cockpit from his seat on the flight's sixth row, other passengers were already wrestling with the copilot while others were trying to stabilize the injured pilot.

Tal also explained that he was seated next to two pilots who were slated to take over flight duties after the plane landed in Tel Aviv.

"I noticed the cockpit was empty. No one was in the cockpit because one pilot was lying on the floor bleeding, and everyone was fighting the other pilot, trying to handcuff him, At that moment, I ran to the two off-duty pilots and told them, 'Guys, you need to go to the cockpit! You need to go to the cockpit!'" he recalled.

"I think it took them about four seconds to understand what was going on. At that point, one of them literally jumped over the two other pilots—one bleeding and one being fought—took control of the aircraft, and righted it," he continued.

Tal praised his fellow Israelis' calm under pressure, explaining how the passengers all entered "action mode."

"It’s a lot to process. Unfortunately, us Israelis know how to process these types of situations. The passengers processed everything really fast, and each person took on a role—whether you were a kid trying to get through it, or a mother with kids. Everyone was in 'action mode,' trying to see how we could get out of the situation.

The Israeli veteran also expressed dismay at elements of the public's reaction to the incident.

"I just want to say something that frustrated me: while everything was happening, I was one of the only people who could communicate externally because I had reception. I was getting messages from people saying the global media was reporting it as a fight between two pilots, while I was reporting from inside that it was a terror attack. It was really frustrating that the media's default reaction was that it couldn't be a terror attack, even though it clearly was," he said.

"It feels like there is a sentiment where the global media allows it to happen—that if it's related to Israelis or Jews, it's treated differently than any other country. That’s how it felt to me," he concluded.

Four Americans were aboard the Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight that diverted to Saudi Arabia following the cockpit attack, a State Department spokesperson confirmed.

The department said it is working with local authorities and stands ready to provide consular assistance to any Americans aboard the flight.

The U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah remain in contact with local authorities as they investigate, the spokesperson said.

The department emphasized the Trump administration’s commitment to assisting Americans abroad.

Fox News’ Nick Kalman contributed to this report.