Wednesday’s incident, in which the co-pilot of a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv tried to hijack the plane, presumably with the intention of crashing it, exposed a serious flaw in Israel’s aviation security.
Only the courage of the plane’s captain, who managed to open the cockpit door despite serious stab wounds, and a few passengers who overcame the assailant, prevented the death of 174 people.
But the incident may still have wider implications for the region, with much depending on the interrogation of the co-pilot, an Omani national, and Israel’s reaction.
Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu says investigations suggest the man who stabbed his fellow pilot and tried to take over a flight had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination”.
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The top priority at this juncture is to glean intelligence from the interrogation of the co-pilot, who is being questioned by the authorities in Saudi Arabia, where the plane made an emergency landing, before he is transferred to the UAE. Initial reports from the Saudi interrogation, shared with Israel, indicate he was motivated by ideology and was not working for Iran or another country.
The results of the interrogation will determine the target for any Israeli response: his handlers, if there are any, and a country or possibly a militant organisation. If it is determined that this was a lone wolf attack, the interrogators will want to know if the attack was motivated by ideology or mental health issues.
[ ‘No one is passing through this door’: Inside the Flydubai cockpit fightOpens in new window ]
Israeli intelligence has been preparing for a scenario involving a plan to hijack an aeroplane for decades, including the possibility of a passenger plane being flown into a densely populated area of Israel. That worst-case scenario didn’t transpire on Wednesday but the Israeli air force took no chances and scrambled two fighter jets to intercept the Emirati plane while it was in Jordanian airspace, if such an order had been given by the prime minister.
Under the terms of the Abraham Accords, when the UAE normalised relations with Israel in September 2020, pilots flying between Israel and Dubai or Abu Dhabi must come from countries that have relations with Israel. Oman does not have diplomatic ties with Israel and questions are being asked in Israel over the failure of the screening system.
Flydubai has many Omani pilots who have flown on the Israel route and Mossad, the Israel Security Agency Shin Bet, together with Israel’s transportation ministry and civil aviation authority are reviewing supervision and enforcement of the vetting mechanism for foreign pilots flying to Israel.
With elections in Israel less than a month away, Netanyahu wasted no time in trying to pivot the attempted hijacking to his political advantage. Coincidentally, the day before the incident he had convened a special security cabinet session to warn of intelligence indicating Israel’s enemies were planning an attack to disrupt the October 27th election. Netanyahu’s supporters argued the attack was proof that his warnings had been accurate and that he has sharp security instincts that ostensibly contributed to thwarting the attack.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who met Netanyahu late on Tuesday night, issued a statement on Wednesday rejecting the claims. “Nothing even resembling this incident with the plane came up in my security briefing from the prime minister. Nothing similar, nothing reminiscent of it, was even hinted at,” he said.
But the anti-Netanyahu bloc are still worried. The dramatic Flydubai incident has created a feel-good factor across the country that is likely to be reflected in the next election polls and maybe even shift some floating voters to support the coalition bloc.
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