Archive · 1 Oct 2026
Grok Translation Turns Flydubai Captain Machchhar Into “Mosquito”
An AI tool called Grok translated a post about a pilot named Smit Machchhar.
It mistakenly treated part of his surname as the Hindi word for mosquito.
This changed his name into “Captain Mosquito Smith.”
The post was written by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi was praising the captain for being brave during an alleged attack in an airplane cockpit.
People online made fun of and criticized the incorrect translation.
Grok admitted that the translation was terrible.
It then gave a corrected version and said the captain had helped save many lives.
Grok mistranslated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s post about Captain Smit Machchhar.
The AI rendered the Hindi surname “मच्छर” literally as “Mosquito,” producing “Captain Mosquito Smith.”
Modi had praised Machchhar for courage during an alleged cockpit attack on Flydubai Flight FZ1073.
Online users and social media personality Abhijeet Chavda criticized the translation as extremely poor.
Grok acknowledged the error and supplied a corrected translation praising Machchhar’s bravery and recovery.
- Who
- Grok, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Captain Smit Machchhar, and online critics including Abhijeet Chavda.
- What
- Grok mistranslated Captain Smit Machchhar’s surname as “Mosquito” in an English translation of Modi’s post, then corrected the error.
- Where
- The incident concerned Flydubai Flight FZ1073; the article does not specify where the translation error or alleged cockpit attack occurred.
- Why
- Grok apparently translated the Hindi word “मच्छर” literally instead of recognizing Machchhar as a proper name.
- AI tool
- Grok
- Flight
- Flydubai Flight FZ1073
- Captain
- Smit Machchhar
- Original error
- “Captain Mosquito Smith”
- Hindi term
- “मच्छर,” meaning mosquito
- Post author
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi
- Correction
- Grok acknowledged the mistake and restored the name to Captain Smit Machchhar