Actor Shobhinaw Satyaa, who plays Neem Karoli Baba in Hanuman Ansh, has praised Captain Smit Machchhar for his conduct during the recent flydubai midair incident and said the pilot’s account of chanting the Hanuman Chalisa during the ordeal had further strengthened his faith.Speaking at an India Today event, Shobhinaw said stories of courage are often associated with the past, but incidents like this remind people that such bravery still exists in the present.“We have grown up listening to stories of bravery. But those stories often made us feel that such things happened a long time ago, that there were people like that in the past. Incidents like these remind us that heroes still exist,” he said.Shobhinaw also referred to Machchhar’s virtual interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during which the pilot said that he chanted the Hanuman Chalisa with his son every day.For Shobhinaw, that detail stood out just as strongly as the account of the incident itself. “The bigger thing was that he also made us realise the power of the Hanuman Chalisa. When that man recited the Hanuman Chalisa there, he touched upon something that is a matter of faith for us,” the actor said. After watching Machchhar’s conversation with the Prime Minister, Shobhinaw said he immediately recorded a video and shared it on social media. “I thanked him a lot for bringing this out in the open. He made our faith, which was already so strong, even more unshakeable,” he added.The incident took place on September 30 aboard flydubai flight FZ1073, which was carrying 174 passengers and was bound for Israel. According to the account cited in the article, Machchhar was seriously injured after his co-pilot, an Omani national, allegedly attacked him with a crash axe kept in the cockpit for emergency purposes. The motive behind the alleged attack remains unclear.
