Flydubai attack: Police reportedly probing apparent conflict of interest of 2 senior Transportation Ministry officials

Police have opened an investigation into two senior Transportation Ministry officials over the security failings surrounding the attack on the flydubai flight to Tel Aviv last week, reports say.

According to Haaretz and Channel 12 news, a probe is underway into an apparent conflict of interest from work done by Dvir Rubinstein and Avri Cohen in addition to their roles at the ministry.

The Transportation Ministry’s security chief Cohen sometimes moonlights as a “reserve security officer” for Israeli airlines at a foreign airport, Haaretz reported Sunday.

Rubinstein, a Transportation Ministry official responsible for security oversight of foreign airlines flying to Israel, has reportedly done paid private consulting and training work for those carriers, including flydubai and Emirates.

Rubinstein, who has served as the ministry’s aviation security director for 19 years, is responsible for granting security approvals and permits to foreign airlines and flights entering Israel, according to a professional biography cited by Channel 12. His responsibilities include oversight of flydubai and its Dubai-Tel Aviv route, on which last week’s terror attack by an Omani copilot took place.

Channel 12 reported Sunday that Rubinstein traveled to the UAE in his private capacity to provide training and consulting to flydubai as well as Emirates. The network noted the apparent conflict of interest in Rubinstein doing private work for airlines he is tasked with overseeing.