Israel appears to have stepped up enforcement of its flight regulations after the FlyDubai cockpit attack. An Ethiopian Airlines cargo plane bound for Tel Aviv was forced to turn around on Monday because one of the pilots was from Indonesia, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, the Telegraph reports. Israeli regulations ban pilots from countries that don’t have diplomatic relations with Israel from flying to the country. The co-pilot accused of attacking a FlyDubai captain and seizing the controls in an apparent attempt to crash the Tel Aviv-bound plane on Sept. 30 is from Oman, which also doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with Israel.
According to Israeli media, the list of crew members on the Ethiopian Airlines jet wasn’t sent to Israel until after the plane had taken off. The plane reportedly had to dump its fuel in the Red Sea before it returned to Addis Ababa, where the Indonesian pilot was replaced with one cleared to land in Israel. Israel’s security agencies have reportedly been warning for years that not enough checks are carried out on the flight crews of foreign airlines, while transportation authorities say they don’t have the necessary intelligence apparatus, per the Times of Israel. Israeli prosecutors say Hamam al-Hammami, the Omani co-pilot, was inspired by the 9/11 attacks and planned to crash the FlyDubai plane into the passenger terminal at Tel Aviv.