Before flydubai attack, dozens of Omani pilots flew to TLV despite ban — report

Israeli security agencies were negligent in enforcing a ban on pilots from unfriendly states flying into Tel Aviv, a failing exposed by Wednesday’s attack on a flydubai flight, according to a report on Thursday.

The attack, which was thwarted by Israeli passengers, the captain and other pilots on board, was perpetrated by the plane’s Omani copilot, who allegedly tried to deliberately crash the plane after first stabbing and injuring the captain. The plane eventually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, and the passengers, almost all of them Israeli, were later flown on to Israel.

Oman does not have relations with Israel. The Abraham Accords, which established diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in 2020, bar pilots from flying into Israel if their countries do not have relations with Jerusalem, the report said.

But despite that provision, Channel 12 news reported that Israel has allowed dozens of Omani pilots to fly into Israel in recent years. It added that Israel has ceded oversight of that prohibition, trusting the foreign airlines to enforce it.

The report said the Shin Bet security service never examined the origins of flydubai’s pilots, beyond merely asking the airline not to use pilots from states that lack ties with Israel.

The Transportation Ministry, for its part, said in a statement to the network that the Shin Bet never issued a specific warning regarding threats from flydubai, beyond asking for increased baggage checks.

“The Shin Bet has all the means to know, within five minutes, who all of the pilots on the Dubai airline are, and they simply chose to turn a blind eye,” the network quoted an anonymous airline industry official as saying. “In Israel, they expected the airline to be reliable enough, so they didn’t conduct reviews in recent years.”

The report also cited a 2024 recommendation from the State Comptroller’s Office instructing the government to review security protocols in all matters relating to air travel.

As Israeli authorities probe the incident, the Transportation Ministry will also be checked, including the activities of the Center for Aviation Security Operations, which was set up in recent years to oversee and monitor the entry of flight crews to Israel, Channel 12 said.

The network further reported that for months the Shin Bet security service, which is responsible for protecting Israeli airlines, had been in a dispute with carriers El Al, IsraAir and Arkia after, in July, it banned them from landing in Dubai due to concerns about tensions in the Middle East amid the war with Iran. Though the issue concerned the three Israeli airlines and not foreign carriers, the network said a posture of heightened security, had it also been adopted for the non-Israeli airlines, could have helped prevent the eventual attack.

Meanwhile, authorities in the UAE and Saudi Arabia were continuing to probe the flydubai incident. The Shin Bet and Mossad spy agency were said to be engaged in delicate cooperation with their counterparts in both countries.

Saudi Arabia confirmed that both the captain and copilot, who were treated in the hospital for injuries, left for Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning after receiving medical clearance.

Initial findings that have been passed to Israeli authorities suggest that the copilot attacked for nationalistic reasons, indicating a terror attack. That assessment was said to be based on what the copilot told Saudi investigators as well as other information.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted earlier Thursday that the Omani first officer  “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.” That assessment came from two Israeli sources aware of developments in the Saudi probe, Channel 12 said.

According to the report, the UAE is angry at Israel for rushing to conclude it was a nationalistic attack before the investigation has been completed, and is insisting that it will handle the probe itself. While it hasn’t ruled out a nationalistic motive, it is waiting to make a definitive conclusion at this stage, the network said.

Meanwhile, the Mossad and Shin Bet are themselves working to determine if the copilot acted alone or on behalf of a terror group, the report said. For the time being, there is an increasingly strong assessment that he acted alone for nationalist reasons, and that Iran was not involved, though that has not been confirmed.