Netanyahu orders review of security on flights to Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a comprehensive review of security procedures for foreign passenger aircraft flying to Israel following an incident aboard a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

Operative Information Center-OMM reports, citing Fox News.

Netanyahu asked Shmuel Ben-Ezra, director of the National Security Council, to appoint an expert to conduct a comprehensive review covering all security aspects of foreign civil aviation flights to Israel, according to the report.

In recent years, Israeli security services have repeatedly warned the Transport Ministry about gaps in monitoring foreign airline crews and verifying passengers’ identities, it said.

Shin Bet previously recommended placing oversight of foreign airlines and their crew lists under the Civil Aviation Authority. The Transport Ministry opposed the proposal and retained oversight under its own authority.

The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported that Omani authorities did not alert Israel to concerns about pilot Hummam al-Hamami, despite knowing of his strong interest in radical ideology.

According to the newspaper, al-Hamami was consequently barred from working as a pilot for Oman Air, sent to a deradicalization program and transferred to an office job.

The Associated Press reported that authorities in the United Arab Emirates provided Israel with the passenger and crew manifest for the Flydubai flight. Israeli officials received no advance warning about any of the passengers or crew members listed, the agency’s sources said.

It remains unclear how an Omani citizen from a country with which Israel has no diplomatic relations was allowed to board a flight to Tel Aviv.

The aircraft was flying from the UAE to Israel on Sept. 30 when it issued an emergency signal in Jordanian airspace around midday. It later emerged that one of the pilots stabbed the captain while trying to take control of the aircraft. The pilot and passengers subdued the attacker, and the plane later landed in Saudi Arabia.

Airline security reviews typically cover passenger identity checks, crew vetting and the exchange of information between aviation authorities. The incident has prompted scrutiny of how those procedures are coordinated for foreign carriers operating flights to Israel.