Smit Machchhar is a name that is likely to echo through the annals of aviation history for years to come. He is the Indian captain who, despite being critically injured himself, acted decisively to prevent what could have turned into another 9/11-style catastrophe. He was flying a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv from Dubai, carrying Israeli passengers, when an unprecedented scene unfolded inside the cockpit.
His Islamist Omani co-pilot stabbed him and attempted to seize control of the aircraft, with the intention of crashing it. However, a gravely wounded Machchhar refused to let the situation spiral out of control. He raised an emergency alert and made the crucial decision to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to rush in and overpower the attacker, neutralising the threat.
His exceptional courage and presence of mind in those critical moments helped save the lives of nearly 180 people on board. The aircraft was eventually diverted to Saudi Arabia, where Machchhar is currently undergoing treatment. The Indian government has assured him of full consular and medical assistance, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to his wife and parents.
His valiant actions have received widespread recognition from PM Modi, his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, United States President Donald Trump and others. He is being hailed as a “hero” by the public, of course, except the Islamo-leftist cabal, racists and other usual suspects.
There is no doubt that he deserves all the attention and praise for his remarkable bravery and resolve in the face of such perilous circumstances. But the episode also raises a chilling question: how different would the response have been had Machchhar failed?
How the tragedy would have been weaponised against India
The world could have witnessed another devastating terrorist attack, with hundreds of lives potentially lost and the truth about what actually happened possibly buried alongside the victims. The Hinduphobic and anti-India coterie, who have either gone conspicuously silent or are already attempting to manufacture narratives of Muslim victimhood in this incident, would be among the first to descend on the tragedy like vultures for their agenda.
Neo-Nazis and racists would have joined them to point fingers at the Indian pilot. The loss of innocent lives would barely have registered amid their perverse eagerness to find yet another opportunity to run a smear campaign against India and Hindus. Machchhar would have been turned into the convenient target while the actual perpetrator remained out of the spotlight.
More disturbingly, there would also have been individuals who celebrated the deaths simply because the victims were Jews, while simultaneously exploiting the occurrence to vilify India. Social media, meanwhile, would have been flooded with the familiar mix of hatred, mockery and vile jokes, an ugly pattern witnessed after an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad last year and other tragedies involving Indians.
Such incidents would have been cherry-picked to draw forced parallels and fabricate a supposed pattern of behaviour among Indian pilots, to use as an excuse for an outrageous portrayal of xenophobia. Every aviation instance involving an Indian, however remote or unrelated, would have been dragged into the conversation as purported evidence of a larger trend.
The discussion would not have been about the event, as the Indian and Hindu roots of the pilot would be the defining feature of the story. Old incidents would have been resurrected, isolated mistakes presented without context, and completely different circumstances conveniently stitched together to paint a picture devoid of merit and only for the purpose of propaganda.
The facts would have similarly been replaced by the most offensive stereotypes and prejudices against Indians. A wider campaign of ridicule and xenophobia would have been in motion, with Indians singled out and their nationality regularly invoked, as if it made the tragedy self-explanatory.
Predictably, Indian pilots would have been branded as “unsafe” and “incompetent,” just one flight away from a possible disaster. This is perhaps one of the most unsettling parts of the alternative outcome.
The jihadi assault would not have ended after claiming hundreds of lives. The deceased would have been reduced to a footnote, the truth distorted, and an Indian pilot who was himself a victim made into a scapegoat and his community persistently demonised.
The event would have been weaponised into a full-blown display of hatred against Hindus and Indians, and conspiracy theories beginning to circulate even before authorities had reached the site of the wreckage or issued any official confirmation. Social media would have been treated as the first courtroom, with unfounded claims, speculations and lies being presented as facts and transformed into ammunition against the community.
A misleading narrative focused on Indians and Hindus would already have taken hold by the time any credible information could reach the broader public, rendering them more vulnerable at the time when they are encountering repeated attacks and hostility from Islamists and racists around the world.
Pakistan would have amplified the anti-India rhetoric
While the anti-India ecosystem would have been handed a golden chance, how could its prime member, Pakistan, let such a moment pass without hitting out at its historical adversary? Pakistan-linked social media accounts have already shown their penchant for circulating fabricated claims, fake allegations, doctored footage and bogus narratives targeting its Hindu-majority neighbour.
They would have posed as Westerners, Arabs or even Indians, and joined the chorus, bombarding social media with disinformation, Hinduphobic rhetoric and abuses.
The objective would be to capitalise on the window of uncertainty before the truth emerged and turn it into an indictment of India and Hindus. The irony would have been hard to miss. Pakistani extremists do not care for the Israeli passengers, given their enmity for the Jewish community, even rejoicing in their misfortunes and sufferings.
Hence, the incident would have been stripped of its human dimension for the objective of India bashing. Pakistan is known not only for sponsoring terrorism across the border with the stated objective of “bleeding India by a thousand cuts,” but also for trying to inflame tensions within India through disinformation, deceptive claims and the exploitation of sensitive issues.
As a result, it would have had every wicked incentive to grab this opening. Moreover, it would hardly have been surprising if Bangladesh too had joined the chorus, as the country has decided to follow the bloody footsteps of the Islamic Republic amid the growing influence of Islamists and the brutal persecution of Hindus.
Truth would have been the biggest casualty, besides the lives lost
The truth undoubtedly would have been the greatest casualty of the attack, as the culprit would be introduced as a Muslim victim of the crash by the Islamo-leftist group, while the responsibility would be squarely laid at Machchhar, with his Hindu identity serving as a basis for the accusation.
Oman’s limited history of aviation terrorism would then have been employed selectively to insist that the possibility of an intentional attack was implausible, further muddying the details and strengthening the propaganda against Machchhar. The terrorist would have been recast as a victim and mourned while the actual casualty would be derided, insulted and grotesquely blamed for the deaths of those he had fought to save.
The liberal mainstream media is already infamous for its reluctance to call out Islamist terrorism and even offer explanations, sanitise or justify the acts that should instead be unequivocally condemned. The same has been evident in the ongoing case, which was initially characterised as an altercation between two pilots.
Thus, who would have actually sought the truth amid such a deluge of propaganda and deliberate obfuscation?
A chilling reminder
The episode could be seen as reminiscent of 26/11, when police officer Tukaram Gopal Omble, at the cost of his own life, helped nabbed Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab alive and, in doing so, ensured that the attackers did not simply disappear into the dense fog of the massacre. The capture proved crucial in establishing their identities and Pakistani links, exposing the reality behind the carefully planned onslaught on Mumbai.
The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by the Indian National Congress, had already projected the non-existent “Hindu terror” or “saffron terror” as a serious threat to the nation at the time. A meticulously devised plan was underway to blame the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Hindus for the bloodshed. Pakistan wanted to take advantage of this political climate, with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists masquerading as “kalava” wearing Hindus to create a false impression.
Had Omble failed to apprehend Kasab, the entire narrative would have been flipped to promote the false bogey of “Hindu terror,” as Pakistan and its sponsored terrorists would have escaped any scrutiny. The result could have been eerily similar had Machchhar been unable to stop the Omani fundamentalist, with complete accountability assigned to him, and the assailant reframed as a victim.
Conclusion
The present development has greatly upset the anti-India and Hindumisic crowd, whose utter disregard for the victims and their families has been quite apparent. Thus, it is a matter of immense relief that Machchhar was able to avert the terrorist assault, and he deserves commendation for it.
However, there is another point that deserves to be highlighted. Lapses, whether deliberate or inadvertent, are ordinarily attributed to the individual responsible and not extended to their country, race or religion as they should be. However, Indians and Hindus are often denied this alleged privilege.
Machchhar is being celebrated today for all the right reasons, but this also serves as a reminder of how fragile the line between truth and an invented narrative can be. Had those vital moments taken place differently, the very same incident could have been turned on its head, with an entire country and community unfairly targeted for the actions of an Omani individual that they had nothing to do with.
