Report: Omani copilot had flown the Dubai-Tel Aviv route several times before his Wednesday terror attack; Israel knew ‘nothing about him’

Omani copilot Hamam al-Hammami reportedly piloted flydubai planes on the Dubai-Tel Aviv route several times before his attempt to crash FZ1073, and Israeli authorities are checking whether he flew the route days before his terror attack.

Flydubai gave Israeli authorities the names of the flight crew, including al-Hammami, as required ahead of Wednesday’s flight, Channel 12 news reports, and the list of names raised no security concerns.

Israel was not aware that al-Hammami had been barred from flying altogether by his previous Oman Air employer because of concerns over his radicalization, the report says.

It adds that the Transportation Ministry, which is legally required to oversee foreign airlines’ vetting of pilots flying to Israel, does not do so, and the Shin Bet and Mossad security and intelligence agencies do not check the backgrounds of foreign pilots either.

Where the flight crews of foreign airlines are concerned, Ben Gurion Airport has been “a lawless zone,” the report charges, citing unnamed security sources.

“The colossal security screw-up” exposed by Wednesday’s terror attack is “as large as the miracle” by which the pilot and several heroic passengers overcame al-Hammami and saved the 180 people on the plane, the sources say. They also compare the incident to October 7, 2023, when “all the facts were out in the open, and nobody looked.” The Omani pilot planned the attack for a long time, “and yet Israel didn’t have a scrap of information on him.”

Israeli investigators have yet to be given access to al-Hammami, who is under investigation in the United Arab Emirates, and are relying on material conveyed by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the report notes.