FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv lands in Saudi after copilot attacks captain
A FlyDubai flight carrying 174 people from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after the copilot allegedly stabbed the captain in the cockpit and the plane went into a steep dive. Passengers later intervened, and the incident is now being investigated by authorities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel, with the United States and Oman also assisting efforts to establish a motive.
The episode has raised fresh questions about aviation security on Israel-bound flights, especially how crew members are vetted and screened. It has also drawn attention to the limits of existing safeguards when the threat comes from inside the cockpit rather than from passengers or baggage.
Israel has some of the world's toughest air travel security measures, while the UAE says it follows international aviation safety standards. Even so, those safeguards did not prevent the alleged attack aboard FlyDubai Flight FZ1073 after it took off from Dubai.
Eyal Hulata, Israel's former national security adviser, said, "Until this event, the possibility of a threat originating from a pilot or crew member was not considered a likely scenario. Security efforts have traditionally focused much more heavily on passengers and their luggage. That will probably change now and crew members will be subject to heavier screening."
Israel's security protocols are focused largely on Israeli airlines and departing flights from Ben-Gurion International Airport. A possible weak point is overseas, where procedures for flights bound for Israel differ and are harder for Israeli authorities to monitor. Philip Baum, a visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University in England, said Dubai International Airport has built much of its standing on a reputation for safety in a volatile region. "They are very conscious of the fact, a little bit like Israel in many respects, that they cannot afford to have a terrorist attack happening on a flight out of there," he said.
Investigators have not publicly identified the object used to stab the captain, or said whether it was brought onto the aircraft or came from inside it. Dave Komendat, a senior security adviser at International SOS and a former chief security officer for Boeing, said preflight screening of crew should usually "mirror very closely what a passenger goes through", though procedures are not uniform around the world.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel has long-standing agreements with foreign airlines to stop pilots from flying into the country if they are citizens of nations that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel. Israeli authorities have described the FlyDubai copilot as Omani. Israel and Oman do not have formal diplomatic relations, raising questions about how he came to be on the Tel Aviv-bound flight. "Obviously, there was a loophole here. And we're taking care of that," Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation sets basic standards for pilot vetting and licensing, while national regulators and airlines can impose stricter checks. Aviation security expert Menachem Bachrach said Israel depends largely on foreign governments and airlines to vet their own crew, and that Wednesday's incident may indicate a lapse in compliance rather than a flaw in the rules themselves. "Before we're jumping to tighten security, I would just say it's likely that somebody didn't follow the protocols," Bachrach said.
Arik Arad, chairman of the aviation cybersecurity consultancy CYVIATION and former head of security at Ben Gurion Airport for El Al, said the Israeli airline regularly assesses whether its pilots are fit to fly, while other carriers may do so less often. Komendat said flight crews usually undergo pre-employment screening, drug testing and recurring medical checks. Investigators will want to know whether any colleagues had earlier raised concerns about the copilot and how the airline responded, he said.
Authorities in the UAE and Israel are also expected to examine how distress signals from the aircraft were handled after the sudden drop in altitude. A person who heard the flight's air traffic control communications said a crew member reported a hijacking and asked for ambulances. Saudi Arabia and Jordan initially refused permission for the plane to land, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media. The crew member eventually persuaded Saudi authorities to let the aircraft land at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk.
International aviation standards say countries should give maximum help and priority to aircraft facing hijacking or other unlawful interference. But Vincent Correia, co-director of McGill University's Institute of Air and Space Law, said the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation requires a country to provide help only "as it may find practicable", making it a "relatively soft obligation". Justin Green, a New York lawyer specialising in international aviation law, said that in practice international guidance can clash with national security concerns. "Each nation is a sovereign and has authority to determine what happens in their airspace and at their airports, so a nation can prioritise its security interests over the safety of the passengers and crew of an aircraft," Green said. "In a terrorist incident, the nation may be worried about the terrorists using the airplane as a weapon like on 9/11. I expect with the ongoing war, the nations in the area are on pretty high alert and that may have played into their initial refusals."
John Gradek, who runs McGill's Aviation Management Program, said standard practice in a serious emergency is to get an aircraft on the ground as quickly as possible at the nearest suitable runway, "regardless of nationality, flight plan or politics". He said it is still not clear why the FlyDubai plane made a 180-degree turn after crossing into Jordanian airspace before heading south-west to Tabuk, though crews do sometimes bypass the nearest airport for one better equipped to handle the emergency.
Netanyahu said the injured captain saved the plane and those on board by resisting the alleged attack long enough to open the Boeing 737's cockpit door. That allowed passengers to overpower the suspect, while other FlyDubai crew members took control and landed the aircraft safely. Reinforced cockpit doors have been central to flight security since the September 11, 2001, attacks, but the FlyDubai case, along with earlier crashes involving pilots who intentionally brought down aircraft, has again highlighted the danger when the threat is inside the cockpit.
Baum said, "The industry itself needs to recognise that flight deck door - whilst installed for very understandable reasons to prevent a suicidal hijacking by a passenger - has also created a fortress into which the good guys cannot gain access to a rogue individual, be it a hijacker or a rogue crew member." Matthew Borie, chief intelligence officer at Osprey Flight Solutions, said airline staff are often more aware of security gaps and can win the trust of the personnel they regularly deal with. "Unfortunately, if an insider with nefarious intent wants to carry out something like this, they may actually be best placed to know where the most vulnerable points are and how to breach them," Borie said.
The incident aboard Flight FZ1073 has therefore triggered parallel questions about crew screening, emergency response and cockpit security, even as investigators in several countries work to establish how the alleged attack happened and why the aircraft had to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
