NIA to probe mid-air attack on Captain Smit Machchhar aboard flydubai flight

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case to probe last month’s mid-air cockpit attack on Captain Smit Machchhar aboard a flydubai flight, officials said on Saturday (October 10, 2026).

The case has been registered under the relevant provisions of the Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, they said.

Indian national pilot Machchhar was stabbed and seriously injured by his co-pilot in the cockpit of flydubai flight FZ1073, while travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30 “in an apparent attempt to hijack or cause it to crash,” the officials said, citing an FIR registered by the NIA on October 9.