e aircraft was plummeting,  he said.

Machchhar said that during those difficult moments, he recited the Hanuman Chalisa, a Hindu devotional hymn dedicated to Lord Hanuman, the monkey god, and traditionally recited as a prayer for strength and courage.

 Lord Hanuman gave me courage,  he told Modi.

Machchhar, who is married and has two children, has worked for FlyDubai for about four years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before joining the airline, he spent 11 years with SpiceJet, an Indian low-cost carrier, where he served as a senior commander and line training captain. He logged more than 9,750 flying hours with SpiceJet.

Philip Kean, CEO of Mainland Air, the New Zealand flight school where Machchhar trained, said pilots are taught how to take over if a fellow crew member becomes incapacitated. But the training does not typically prepare them for a stabbing attack by a colleague, he told The Associated Press on Friday.

 I don't think there's much in the handbook for being stabbed,  Kean said.

 You're friends and you're flying together,  he said.  Nobody would expect … a person to have a go at you like that. 

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Associated Press journalist Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.