Netanyahu orders Israel flight security review after flydubai cockpit attack

Israel is to launch a sweeping security review of all incoming foreign flights after a co-pilot reportedly tried to crash a passenger plane flying from Dubai.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the urgent assessment on Sunday. The decision follows an attempted attack inside the cockpit of a flydubai flight heading to Israel, carried out by an Omani co-pilot.

Netanyahu has instructed Shmuel Ben Ezra, the head of Israel's National Security Council, to appoint a dedicated examiner to run the inquiry. This examiner will conduct a "thorough review of all security aspects of foreign civil aviation to Israel," the prime minister's office said in a statement.

What happened on the flydubai flight?

Details of the cockpit struggle remain limited. The flight was operated by flydubai, the budget carrier owned by the Dubai government, which has run regular flights to Israel since the two nations normalised relations.

During the journey, the Omani co-pilot reportedly tried to crash the aircraft. The prime minister's office has not said how the co-pilot was subdued, or how close the aircraft came to disaster. Neither flydubai nor the government of Oman has released a detailed statement about the incident, leaving it unclear how the co-pilot managed to bypass standard pre-flight screening.

Security at Israeli airports is famously tight, but those measures usually focus on passengers and baggage rather than the flight crew of international airlines. A pilot turning an aircraft into a weapon from inside a locked cockpit represents a major security challenge for Israeli intelligence agencies.

How will the security review work?

The newly ordered investigation will focus on how foreign airlines vet their flight crews and what safety protocols are in place once those planes enter Israeli airspace.

While Israel's national carrier, El Al, employs its own strict cockpit security measures—including reinforced double-doors and sky marshals—foreign carriers operating flights to Israel rely on the security clearances of their home countries.

Shmuel Ben Ezra's task will be to determine whether those foreign vetting procedures are sufficient, or if Israel must impose new, stricter requirements on international airlines wishing to land in the country. This could include demands for deeper background checks on foreign crew members or changes to how crews are monitored during flights.

Any move by Israel to impose heavy-handed security restrictions on foreign flight crews could cause operational friction for regional carriers. Direct flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv have been a highly visible success of the diplomatic opening between Israel and the UAE, but this incident is bound to put those links under intense security scrutiny.