The figure reportedly emerged as part of the investigations that were opened after an apparent attack on a flydubai flight from Dubai, in which an Omani co-pilot attacked the captain with alleged intentions of harming the plane and its passengers. Dozens of Omani pilots have flown to Tel Aviv in recent years on flydubai flights, despite a ban on pilots from unfriendly states in a major security lapse, Israel’s Channel 12 has reported.
The report further pointed out that for months the Shin Bet security service, which is responsible for protecting Israeli airlines, had been in a dispute with some Israeli carriers over their Dubai operation amid tension in the Middle East. Israel’s Transportation Ministry has said in a statement to Channel 12 that the Shin Bet never issued a specific warning regarding threats from flydubai, beyond asking for increased baggage checks.
Israel has ceded oversight of that prohibition over the years, trusting the foreign airlines to enforce the ban, according to the report. The network said that adopting the heightened security attitude for non-Israeli airlines as well could have helped prevent the eventual attack. Israel’s spy agency Mossad, along with Shin Bet, are working to investigate whether the copilot acted alone or on behalf of a terror group, according to the Times of Israel report. While the UAE hasn’t ruled out a nationalistic motive behind the attack, it is waiting to draw a definitive conclusion at this stage, the network said. Even as the ambiguity still exists on the motive behind the flydubai incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been quick to frame the attack as the almost inevitable outcome of the “propaganda” he says continues to vilify Israel. Netanyahu has publicly claimed that the attacker “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.”
