The initial euphoria in Israel over the resourcefulness of passengers and crew who saved a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv from crashing has faded, with attention shifting sharply to the apparent security failure that almost led to a catastrophe.
Amid questions about the role of the airline and the United Arab Emirates, the FlyDubai incident has also highlighted that Israel’s rules about the supervision of foreign airlines are complex and confusing — as the Israeli authorities have previously reported.
Israeli government agencies on Sunday blamed one another over the seemingly inadequate vetting that allowed an Omani co-pilot who had embraced extreme Islamist views to be in the cockpit of a plane from Dubai bound for Israel carrying 174 passengers, most of them Israelis.
The co-pilot attacked the Indian captain of the flight on Wednesday and was trying to crash the plane before passengers and crew members intervened, with the help of the wounded captain, according to witnesses and Israeli and Emirati officials. Reserve pilots on board took over the controls and made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
An official in the United Arab Emirates said on Saturday that the co-pilot, who has been identified as Hamam al-Hammami, used an emergency crash ax in an attempt to take over the plane, adding that the attack was a terrorist operation.
Mr. al-Hammami’s embrace of extreme Islamist views had prompted security officials in Oman to scrutinize him earlier, according to two people briefed on the matter.
The revelations have raised questions in Israel about how Mr. al-Hammami was permitted to fly the jet, given that the country’s security protocols require foreign airlines to provide the government with identification details of crew members arriving in the country. The headline of Yediot Ahronot, a major Hebrew-language daily newspaper, on Sunday said the Omani “flew beneath Israel’s radar,”, while other outlets called it a “fiasco.”
An Israeli law passed in 2023 stipulated that foreign airlines must submit lists of passengers and crew at least 48 hours in advance of a flight to a specially designated department within the Treasury’s Tax Authority. Responsibility for security is then seemingly divided between Israel’s Ministry of Transportation, Israel’s international spy agency, its domestic security agency and other bodies.
Israel’s state comptroller, a government watchdog, reported in 2024 that responsibility for international civil aviation security was fragmented and confusing. It urged the government to formulate a comprehensive policy and assign clear accountability.
Miri Regev, Israel’s transportation minister and a loyal ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has distanced herself and her ministry from any responsibility. She said in an interview with Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, on Saturday that the ministry had not received the list of passengers and crew members and that the Mossad, Israel’s international spy agency, was responsible for security when it came to foreign airlines.
“The issue of air traffic security is a very complex issue,” Ms. Regev added.
A security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the security division of the transportation ministry and the Mossad were responsible for supervision.
A spokeswoman for the Tax Authority confirmed in a statement that it had received the list of passengers and crew for the FlyDubai flight, adding that questions about whether the transportation ministry “took the information or used it” should be directed to that ministry.
In a separate statement on Sunday, the transportation ministry said it was “not an intelligence body and does not have the tools to carry out background security checks on crew members and passengers.”
The prime minister’s office, which oversees the Mossad, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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