"We Should Stand In Awe": Ex-Australian PM Praises Captain Smit Machchhar

Former Australian Prime Minister and Asia Society Global President and CEO Dr Kevin Rudd has praised Captain Smit Machchhar and Israeli passengers who helped avert the potentially catastrophic outcome during the recent flydubai cockpit incident, calling their actions an example of "courage" and "skill". Rudd also warned that terrorism remains a persistent global threat and called for greater cooperation between countries on intelligence, aviation security and counterterrorism.

Rudd said the flydubai incident should serve as a reminder to governments and aviation authorities that security threats can emerge in unexpected ways and require constant vigilance.

"We should stand in awe at the courage, frankly, of passengers and the extraordinary captain," Rudd told NDTV's Foreign Affairs Editor Aditya Raj Kaul, praising the pilot for displaying resilience and skill in bringing what he described as an "extraordinarily dangerous situation" to a safe conclusion.

Rudd said the incident demonstrated the importance of preparedness when an unexpected security threat emerges aboard a commercial aircraft.

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Terrorism Has Not Disappeared

Asked about the broader global fight against terrorism, Rudd said the threat had not disappeared despite years of international counterterrorism operations.

"Terrorism is an enemy of all civilised societies and countries, and it hasn't gone away," he said, warning that the threat continues to "ferment" and "fester".

Rudd argued that the nature of the threat makes international cooperation essential. Terrorism, he said, does not respect national borders and therefore requires countries to work together through intelligence-sharing, security cooperation and preventive action.

He specifically highlighted the need for India and Australia to maintain close coordination with other countries in dealing with emerging threats.

"This requires ongoing vigilance, collaboration between our intelligence authorities, our security authorities," Rudd said, stressing the importance of being able to act before an incident develops into a major attack.

Aviation Security May Need To Learn Lessons

The flydubai incident also raised questions about whether aviation security protocols need to be strengthened, similar to the sweeping changes that followed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Rudd said the incident would inevitably lead aviation authorities to examine existing safeguards, particularly after questions arose over how an individual could gain access to the cockpit and pose a threat from inside the aircraft.

He said both national and international civil aviation regulators would need to learn from what happened to ensure that similar circumstances do not occur again.

The former Australian leader's comments underline the particular vulnerability of commercial aviation, where an incident inside an aircraft can rapidly become a threat to hundreds of passengers and people on the ground.

Rudd Criticises UN's Counterterrorism Framework

Rudd was also blunt in his assessment of the United Nations' ability to tackle terrorism.

Asked whether the UN has failed to effectively counter terrorism and even struggled to agree on a basic definition of the threat, Rudd said the existing UN system is "not well-designed" to deal with the rolling challenge of terrorism.

He argued that political and foreign-policy considerations often result in compromises during UN deliberations, making it difficult to develop a unified international response.

According to Rudd, terrorism should be treated primarily as a threat to innocent civilian lives rather than through the prism of competing political positions.

He called instead for closer cooperation among India, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, European countries and Gulf states, describing the need for these countries to work "seamlessly" to reduce risks to civilian populations and travelling publics.

Rudd's comments place the flydubai incident within a broader warning: aviation security, intelligence cooperation and constant vigilance remain critical as the global terrorism threat evolves beyond conventional forms of attack.