Overview
- Emirati investigators have labeled the incident a terrorist attack after an Omani copilot attacked the captain with the cockpit emergency axe and tried to seize control of the Flydubai plane.
- Passengers and crew overpowered the copilot and the aircraft made an emergency diversion before landing safely, with the captain surviving and more than 170 people on board.
- Israeli officials say they received passenger and crew lists from the UAE before the flight but did not detect alerts, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered an exhaustive security review and named an examiner through the National Security Council.
- The Shin Bet and the Transport Ministry disagree over who must screen foreign-flight manifests, and Israeli media report earlier warnings about weak checks on foreign pilots plus an alleged conflict of interest involving the Transport Security director.
- Aviation authorities say Israel relies on origin-country checks and lacks capacity to vet every traveler individually, a gap that raises diplomatic and operational questions because the copilot was an Omani national and Oman has no formal ties with Israel.