Israeli Transportation Ministry failed to vet foreign flight crews

Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev stated that security agencies handle flight security and that her ministry did not receive the flight crew list.

By Etgar Lefkovits, JNS

Israel’s Transportation Ministry acknowledged this weekend that it had failed to vet international flight crews arriving in the country and relied entirely on airlines to confirm their crews had passed background security checks.

The security lapse came to light following the September 30 attack on a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv.

The admission came after it emerged that the Omani co-pilot who attacked the captain and then tried to crash the plane was allowed to fly the commercial route in violation of bilateral agreements that explicitly stipulate that flight crews must come from countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Israel.

Following the security blunder, Israel’s domestic security agency, Shin Bet, said the Transportation Ministry is responsible for vetting passenger lists from foreign flights.

Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev stated that security agencies handle flight security and that her ministry did not receive the flight crew list.

Israel’s Tax Authority confirmed over the weekend that it had received a list of foreign flight crews but had only checked them for criminal status.

Israeli authorities were also investigating whether the co-pilot, identified as 29-year-old Omani national Hamam al-Hamami, had flown to Israel before.

A former worker at Ben-Gurion International Airport told Israel’s Channel 12 News on Sunday that she had let flight crew into the country from multiple countries without diplomatic ties with Israel, including Syria and Lebanon.

Flydubai, a popular Emirati carrier that flies between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, is also facing severe scrutiny over a major vetting failure after it emerged that the co-pilot had been barred from flying by Oman Air in 2024 after being flagged as a security risk for possessing extremist materials.