Scrutiny is also widening over Israeli crew screening. Israel received the passenger and crew list 48 hours before departure, including the co-pilot’s Omani citizenship, Haaretz reported. Channel 12 reported that he had flown to Israel just a week earlier, that Israel did not know of his previous dismissal in Oman over extremism concerns, and that the Transportation Ministry neither independently vetted foreign crews nor monitored their backgrounds. Transportation Minister Miri Regev rejected responsibility, saying: “The Transportation Ministry is not an intelligence agency.”
UAE prosecutors said the co-pilot attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with the cockpit’s emergency axe and tried to seize the aircraft in an attempted terrorist operation on the Sept. 30 flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Passengers and crew subdued him, and additional pilots aboard landed the aircraft safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The passengers subsequently reached Israel on a replacement flight. Flydubai’s Tel Aviv service remains suspended until further notice.