Israel tightens pilot vetting after Flydubai cockpit attack

Israel will screen foreign pilots more closely after an attack inside the cockpit of a Flydubai flight, according to a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We will know the identity of every pilot who flies to Israel and put him through a security check," the spokesman said.

The first officer of flight FZ1073 tried on Wednesday, 30 September, to take out his captain, apparently in order to crash the jet, according to the account given. Passengers and a crew member travelling on the aircraft intervened and stopped the worst, and the Boeing 737 Max landed safely at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. Another Flydubai aircraft later carried the passengers from there to Tel Aviv.

Flydubai has temporarily suspended its Tel Aviv flights while authorities investigate the incident. The carrier is the dominant airline on the Dubai-Tel Aviv route, connecting the two cities up to ten times a day.

With those scheduled flights gone, Israeli citizens who were in Dubai and had intended to use them are still there. Agents of the domestic security service Shin Bet have travelled to Dubai to prepare arrangements for repatriation flights planned from Friday.

Security precautions at Israeli airlines are already very high, the report notes.