Omani co-pilot case raises questions over Israeli flight security checks
Reports cited by India Today say the Omani co-pilot accused of attacking the captain of a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight held no second nationality. Conflicting accounts about pilot-eligibility rules have prompted scrutiny of how the crew was cleared and whether security checks were properly enforced.
The assignment of an Omani co-pilot to a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv has raised questions about Israel’s aviation-security procedures, according to reports cited by India Today. The co-pilot was accused of stabbing Indian captain Smit Machchhar inside the cockpit and attempting to crash Flight FZ1073 on September 30. The aircraft later made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
The supplied material says the flight carried 174 passengers, most of them Israelis. Sources familiar with the investigation told The Jerusalem Post that the co-pilot held no second citizenship. That finding challenges speculation that he had used another nationality to meet any restriction on pilots from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel.
Accounts differ over whether such a restriction applied. An Israeli transportation ministry source told The Jerusalem Post that flydubai’s operating agreement required pilots to be nationals of countries that had normalised relations with Israel. Other sources cited by the newspaper said the bilateral aviation agreement between Israel and the UAE contained no such requirement.
The Times of Israel, citing Channel 12, reported that dozens of Omani pilots had operated flydubai flights to Tel Aviv. It said Israeli authorities had relied on the airline to enforce the reported restriction, rather than independently checking pilot nationalities. Israel’s transport minister, Miri Regev, sought to halt flydubai flights and directed the Civil Aviation Authority to examine compliance.
The supplied material says it remains unclear whether a separate security arrangement was breached or whether enforcement procedures failed.
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