Stories
PM Modi Envisions Made In India Planes Following Pilot Heroism
- •Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery after surviving a cockpit attack during a Flydubai flight.
- •Captain Machchhar managed an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia and enabled passenger intervention, preventing a catastrophic disaster involving 174 passengers.
- •PM Modi linked the global praise for the Indian pilot to a future vision where the world will fly in Made in India aircraft.
- •India is currently advancing its aerospace manufacturing sector, highlighted by the Tata-Airbus C295 transport aircraft project in Vadodara.
Key Questions Answered
Captain Smit Machchhar commanded Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30, where he was seriously injured after being attacked by his co-pilot. Despite his severe injuries, he managed to open the cockpit door, enabling passenger intervention and preventing a catastrophic crash during an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
India is building an indigenous aerospace manufacturing ecosystem through the Tata-Airbus C295 programme, which inaugurated a final assembly line in Vadodara in 2024. Under this initiative, 40 of the 56 ordered military transport aircraft will be manufactured locally with thousands of parts produced by Indian suppliers, with the first India-made C295 scheduled to roll out in September 2026.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi envisions a self-reliant India where the world talks not only about skilled Indian pilots, but also about aircraft entirely made within the country. This broader push for indigenous manufacturing spans from transport planes to future goals for civilian aircraft and advanced defense projects.
