UAE honours Indian flydubai captain who protected passengers during cockpit attack

The UAE conferred the First-Class Order of Zayed II on Captain Smit Machchhar and the crew of flydubai flight FZ1073. On September 30, the Dubai–Tel Aviv flight was diverted to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia after a serious cockpit incident in which Machchhar was injured. Crew, off-duty pilots and passengers helped control the situation, and all 172 on board landed safely.