{"id":619824,"date":"2026-10-03T22:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619824\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T22:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:56:15","slug":"insider-threat-what-the-flydubai-attack-reveals-about-aviation-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619824\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider threat: what the FlyDubai attack reveals about aviation security"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel has some of the world\u2019s most stringent air travel security measures. The United Arab Emirates proudly adheres to international aviation safety standards. Yet those safeguards failed to prevent a flight between the countries from taking a dangerous plunge during an alleged attack in the cockpit.<\/p>\n

The copilot allegedly stabbed the captain in the cockpit before passengers intervened aboard FlyDubai Flight FZ1073 after taking off from Dubai, UAE, with 182 people including eight crew members flying to Tel Aviv, Israel, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The aeroplane made a safe emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and the incident is under investigation by Saudi, Emirati and Israeli authorities, with the United States and Oman assisting efforts to determine a motive.<\/p>\n

The Omani national stabbed the pilot and tried to bring down the plane. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil this event, the possibility of a threat originating from a pilot or crew member was not considered a likely scenario. <\/p>\n

“Security efforts have traditionally focused much more heavily on passengers and their luggage,\u201d said Eyal Hulata, Israel\u2019s former national security adviser. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat will probably change now and crew members will be subject to heavier screening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel’s security protocols focus heavily on Israeli airlines and departing flights from Ben-Gurion International Airport. A potential Achilles\u2019 heel lies overseas, where procedures for Israel-bound flights vary and are harder for Israeli authorities to oversee.<\/p>\n

Dubai International Airport, the world\u2019s busiest airport for international passenger traffic, has built some of its appeal around a reputation for safety in a volatile region, said Philip Baum, a visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University in England.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very conscious of the fact, a little bit like Israel in many respects, that they cannot afford to have a terrorist attack happening on a flight out of there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Omani national stabbed the pilot and tried to bring down the plane. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Pilot vetting, preflight screening aren’t uniform worldwide<\/p>\n

Investigators have not publicly identified the object used to stab the flight’s captain or said whether it was carried onto the plane or came from inside the aircraft.<\/p>\n

Preflight screening of flight crews should generally \u201cmirror very closely what a passenger goes through,\u201d although security procedures vary around the world, said Dave Komendat, a senior security adviser at risk management firm International SOS and former chief security officer for Boeing.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel has long-standing agreements with foreign carriers to keep pilots from flying into the country if they are citizens of nations that don\u2019t maintain diplomatic relations with Israel.<\/p>\n

\"Israeli<\/p>\n

Israeli passenger Haim Lazarovich, who experienced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, during a flight on FlyDubai plane. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Israeli authorities have described the FlyDubai copilot as Omani. Israel and Oman do not have formal diplomatic relations, raising questions about how the suspect ended up on the Tel Aviv-bound flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there was a loophole here. And we\u2019re taking care of that,\u201d Netanyahu said Thursday during an interview with Fox News Channel\u2019s \u201cFox and Friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel will increase security precautions on flights coming into the country whether or not they are operated by Israel. <\/p>\n

Pilots flying into Israel will be vetted and Israel will know their identities, prime minister\u2019s office spokesperson Doron Spielman told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

There were no Israeli air marshals on the FlyDubai flight and the people who helped were civilians, Spielman added.<\/p>\n

\"Passengers<\/p>\n

Passengers embark on a FlyDubai aircraft at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The International Civil Aviation Organisation sets baseline pilot-vetting and licensing standards, while national regulators and airlines can impose additional requirements.<\/p>\n

Aviation security expert Menachem Bachrach said Israel relies largely on foreign governments and airlines to vet their own crew members, and Wednesday\u2019s incident may point to a compliance lapse rather than a flaw in the procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we\u2019re jumping to tighten security, I would just say it\u2019s likely that somebody didn\u2019t follow the protocols,\u201d Bachrach said.<\/p>\n

Investigators to look for red flags and review distress call handling<\/p>\n

Israeli flag carrier El Al periodically assesses its pilots\u2019 fitness to fly, while other airlines may do so less often, said Arik Arad, chairman of the aviation cybersecurity consultancy CYVIATION and El Al\u2019s former head of security at Ben Gurion Airport.<\/p>\n

\"Passengers<\/p>\n

Passengers who experienced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, during a flight on FlyDubai plane, arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Investigators will want to know whether colleagues previously reported concerns about the copilot and, if so, how the airline responded, Komendat said.<\/p>\n

Investigators in the UAE and Israel also are likely to review responses to the distress signals that came from the FlyDubai plane after a steep drop in altitude.<\/p>\n

A person who heard the FlyDubai flight\u2019s air traffic control communications said a crew member reported a hijacking and requested ambulances. <\/p>\n

Authorities in Saudi Arabia and Jordan initially refused to clear the aircraft for landing, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.<\/p>\n

The crew member eventually persuaded Saudi authorities to allow the plane to set down at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in the city of Tabuk.<\/p>\n

International aviation standards call for countries to give aircraft facing hijacking or other \u201cunlawful interference\u201d maximum assistance and priority. <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An FlyDubai plane carrying Israeli passengers who had earlier been aboard another FlyDubai aircraft that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

But the underlying 1944 treaty, the Convention on International Civil Aviation, only requires a country to provide assistance \u201cas it may find practicable,\u201d making it a \u201crelatively soft obligation,\u201d said Vincent Correia, co-director of McGill University\u2019s Institute of Air and Space Law.<\/p>\n

Standard practice in a serious emergency is to get an aircraft on the ground as quickly as possible at the nearest suitable runway, \u201cregardless of nationality, flight plan or politics,\u201d said John Gradek, who manages McGill\u2019s Aviation Management Program.<\/p>\n

Gradek stressed it\u2019s still not clear why the FlyDubai plane took a 180-degree turn as it crossed into Jordanian airspace before heading southwest to Tabuk. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unusual for flight crews to bypass the nearest airport in favour of one better-equipped to meet a plane\u2019s needs, he said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The diverted flight to Tel Aviv arrives in Israel. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Locked cockpits have been central to flight security for 25 years<\/p>\n

Netanyahu said the flight’s injured captain saved the aircraft and everyone on it by resisting the copilot’s attacks long enough to open the 737’s cockpit door, enabling passengers to subdue the suspect and other FlyDubai crew members to take the controls and land the plane.<\/p>\n

Cockpit doors worldwide were reinforced and locked after the September 11, 2001, attacks to keep intruders out. <\/p>\n

The FlyDubai incident, and past crashes caused by pilots who wanted to take their own lives, highlight the risk when a threat comes from inside the cockpit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry itself needs to recognise that flight deck door \u2014 whilst installed for very understandable reasons to prevent a suicidal hijacking by a passenger \u2014 has also created a fortress into which the good guys cannot gain access to a rogue individual, be it a hijacker or a rogue crew member,\u201d Baum said.<\/p>\n

Airline personnel know more about aviation security weaknesses and can gain the trust of security workers they regularly encounter, Osprey Flight Solutions Chief Intelligence Officer Matthew Borie, whose company advises airlines on flight threats, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, if an insider with nefarious intent wants to carry out something like this, they may actually be best placed to know where the most vulnerable points are and how to breach them,\u201d Borie said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel has some of the world\u2019s most stringent air travel security measures. The United Arab Emirates proudly adheres…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,5107,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-619824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}