The Media Line: Transportation Ministry Denies Responsibility for Foreign Pilot Vetting After Flydubai Attack  

Transportation Ministry Denies Responsibility for Foreign Pilot Vetting After Flydubai Attack  

By The Media Line Staff  

Israel’s Transportation Ministry said on Sunday it was not responsible for vetting foreign pilots, despite a 2021 Security Cabinet decision transferring responsibility for security on foreign flights to Israel from the Shin Bet to the ministry.  

The dispute over responsibility followed last week’s attempted terror attack aboard a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv carrying 174 passengers, most of them Israeli. An Omani co-pilot who had previously been flagged over extremism attacked the pilot and attempted to crash the plane.  

The incident raised questions about why a pilot with suspected extremist views and citizenship from a country that had not normalized ties with Israel was permitted to serve on the flight.  

According to a report published Sunday morning, the Security Cabinet decided in July 2021 that the Shin Bet would no longer oversee security on foreign flights to Israel. Before the change, the agency had also screened crew members arriving aboard foreign flights.  

The Cabinet instructed that “the Civil Aviation Authority in the Transportation Ministry will verify that security directives in foreign countries comply with the provisions of international conventions.” However, a National Security Council document states that “the Transportation Ministry is not acting in accordance with the decision.”  

Ministry officials maintained that their responsibilities do not include intelligence investigations of individual foreign pilots. Its security division said it does not receive Flydubai crew members’ names in advance and lacks personnel abroad to conduct such checks.  

“We are not an intelligence body that checks the intelligence background of foreigners,” a division representative said. “We have no forces abroad. We have no staff that checks every person there.”  

Transportation Minister Miri Regev similarly told the Kan public broadcaster Saturday that security agencies, rather than her ministry, are responsible for identifying crew members and assessing threats.  

“Those who are supposed to identify the crew are security officials. We are not security officials,” Regev said.  

A source familiar with the discussions told Army Radio that the ministry’s professional staff strongly opposed assuming the responsibility, except Civil Aviation Authority Director Shmuel Zakai.  

“Everyone dug in their heels and told Minister Miri Regev that it would be a serious mistake to assume such enormous responsibility,” the source said.  

The ministry also rejected suggestions that foreign flights could be guaranteed completely secure.  

“Nothing is 100% when it comes to security,” the division’s representative told Ynet.