The violent cockpit attack by a co-pilot on a FlyDubai plane this week raised questions not only about his motivations but also about whether he might have evaded the background checks that most commercial airline pilots must undergo.
Aviation experts noted that pilots undergo physical and mental health screenings and criminal background checks but said those measures may go only so far in identifying pilots who have become radicalized or who try to hide their mental health issues.
In the FlyDubai attack on Wednesday, Israeli officials have said that the co-pilot tried to crash the plane after stabbing the pilot, leading to a bloody struggle in the cockpit.
Much remains unclear about the motive for the attack, which is the subject of an international investigation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told Fox News on Thursday that the co-pilot had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination” but did not elaborate.
The plane, which was flying from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, to Tel Aviv with about 170 passengers, mostly Israelis, plunged more than 17,000 feet in less than two minutes before passengers were able to overpower the co-pilot. Two other pilots who were onboard then took the controls and landed the plane in Saudi Arabia.
In the United States, pilots undergo a criminal history check that looks for past convictions as well as a threat assessment by the Transportation Security Administration that examines whether they have ever been flagged as a “person of interest” in federal law enforcement databases, according to Jeffrey C. Price, a professor of aviation and aerospace sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
“The downside of the system today — and it’s just a naturally occurring downside — is that it really can’t tell what you’re going to do in the future,” he said. “It can’t tell if you’re going to be radicalized, or if there are any signs that show that could occur.”
While background checks may vary for pilots in other parts of the world, experts said they generally follow the U.S. model. European airline pilots, for instance, must also pass background checks that examine their identity, criminal records and employment and education histories, according to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
Airlines, like other employers, may also check a pilot’s social media accounts and online history before hiring them. Those checks could turn up inappropriate pictures or more concerning statements about their ideologies, experts said.
But if a pilot were radicalized after being hired, there is likely nothing anyone could do “unless some other crew member picked it up and reported it,” said Diane Damos, an aviation psychologist in Illinois who specializes in pilot selection and hiring.
The General Civil Aviation Authority of the United Arab Emirates, which oversees FlyDubai’s pilots, did not respond directly to a request for information about its screening procedures.
The agency pointed instead to official government statements about the attack, which note that the Emirates was investigating “all circumstances and motives surrounding the incident, including any possible connection to terrorist activity or intent, and whether it involved prior planning or direction.”
Billy Nolen, a former acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said the Emirates has “a very robust protocol in place” to screen pilots. He said he expected that the country’s investigation into the attack would now review the background check for the co-pilot.
“Is there anything that was missed?” he said. “How well was this initial pilot’s assessment done?”
In the United States, pilots undergo mental health screenings as part of their medical checks, but those screenings are “not that in depth,” and generally rely on pilots self-reporting any problems they may be experiencing, Professor Price said.
The system has been criticized by some pilots and mental health professionals because pilots who seek psychiatric help or a prescription for antidepressants can lose, at least temporarily, the medical certificate that makes them eligible to fly. As a result, many pilots “are afraid to disclose anything,” Professor Price said, “because it could lead to their medical certificate being rejected, which means they’re not flying.”
Kit Darby, a retired United Airlines captain, described the screening process as a “spiderweb of small things you do.”
“You fill out a form for your medical and they ask a bunch of questions,” he said. “But the medical process is mostly an honor system. In some cases, if you didn’t put down a problem, it would be hard to find it.”
Concerns about pilots with mental health problems gained global attention in 2015 when a Germanwings co-pilot who the authorities said had been treated for “suicidal tendencies” intentionally crashed a jetliner into the French Alps, killing all 150 people onboard.
In 2023, an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot tried to shut down the engines of a plane mid-flight, two days after he took psychedelic mushrooms. The pilot, Joseph D. Emerson, said he had been having a “nervous breakdown” and had been struggling with depression and grief over the death of his best friend.
Although he expressed regret for his actions, he said that the federal rules that can ground pilots who disclose mental health problems had left him to struggle alone, rather than seeking help.
“A lot of us aren’t as forthcoming as we otherwise would be,” Mr. Emerson told The New York Times in 2023. A 2022 survey of pilots in the United States found that 56 percent reported having avoided health care in some way.
Mr. Darby said that although the system could be more rigorous, it generally does a good job of weeding out pilots who are unfit to fly, given how rare it is to have an attack like the one on the FlyDubai flight.
“Would I be concerned about it? I wouldn’t,” he said. “I would say the system is working well and the odds of this are almost incalculably small. They are really low.”
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