Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with flydubai Capt. Smit Machchhar on Saturday.
The Indian national told Netanyahu that he "gave everything that I had" to open the cockpit door once his Omani co-pilot began attacking him in an attempt to hijack the aircraft.
"I had that one last fight left in me," Machchhar told the prime minister. "If I don't do it, I'm going to die... and just went for the door and opened the door."
Machchhar said the ordeal began when his co-pilot said he wanted to pray, which the captain noted was "not out of the ordinary."
The captain said he looked away "out of respect" when he suddenly felt a "big blow to the back of my head."
"My first thought was that there was catastrophic damage to the aircraft," he said. "But then, after that, the blows kept coming, one after the other, and that's when I realized that it's not the aircraft; it's the other guy who was in the cockpit with me."
Machchhar: Co-pilot attempted to keep cockpit door shut during attack
Despite Machchhar's attempts to stop him, he said the aircraft pitched sharply downward as his vision rapidly faded, noting that he managed to open the cockpit door several times even though his co-pilot kept closing it.
"My colleagues from outside were trying to pitch in the code (to open the door), but the guy was not allowing them to open the code," the captain explained. "Once I had my hand on the knob, I guess I twisted it, and I opened it."
"I remember I was lying down on the cockpit floor, and I felt the aircraft and the whooshing sound and people screaming," he recalled. "Thankfully, people were waiting to pounce back, took over the controls, and the rest is what you know, sir."
Netanyahu invites Machchhar to join Indian PM Modi at Independence Day torch lighting
Netanyahu told Machchhar how he admired his "courage" and "coolness of judgment under impossible conditions," inviting the captain to light a torch alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Israel's next Independence Day celebration.
"It's usually reserved for Israeli citizens, but I think here in this case, all the citizens of Israel will embrace you," he told Machchhar.
The prime minister thanked Machchhar for his "remarkable" actions, saying that he "saved the spirit of the world."
"You're a hero of Israel, you're a hero of India, you're a hero of the entire world," he told the captain. "I can tell you that people here (in Israel) will welcome you with open arms."
Captain Machchhar told Netanyahu that he would appreciate the chance to meet the Israeli dentist who saved his life onboard the aircraft immediately following the co-pilot's attack.