Transportation Ministry claims it is not responsible for screening foreign pilots

The ministry’s security division similarly said it lacks both the intelligence capabilities to investigate foreigners and personnel stationed abroad.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Questions over who is responsible for screening foreign airline crews intensified Sunday after Israel’s Transportation Ministry said it does not conduct intelligence background checks on pilots, despite assuming foreign-flight security responsibilities previously held by the Shin Bet under a July 2021 Security Cabinet decision.

The disagreement has come under scrutiny following last week’s attempted terror attack on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

An Omani co-pilot who had previously been flagged over extremism attacked the pilot and attempted to crash the aircraft, which was carrying 174 passengers, most of them Israeli.

His participation in the flight raised questions because Oman has not normalized ties with Israel and the co-pilot had suspected extremist views.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev said Saturday that determining whether individual crew members pose a danger is a matter for Israel’s security authorities rather than her ministry.

“Those who are supposed to identify the crew are security officials. We are not security officials,” Regev told the Kan public broadcaster.

The ministry’s security division similarly said it lacks both the intelligence capabilities to investigate foreigners and personnel stationed abroad.

Officials also said flydubai does not provide the division with crew members’ names in advance.

“We are not an intelligence body that checks the intelligence background of foreigners,” a division representative said. “We have no forces abroad. We have no staff that checks every person there.”

The division also cautioned against expectations that authorities can eliminate every possible danger.

“Nothing is 100% when it comes to security,” its representative told Ynet.

The ministry’s position comes against the backdrop of the 2021 Cabinet decision ending the Shin Bet’s oversight of security on foreign flights to Israel. Before that change, the agency also screened crews arriving on foreign airlines.

Under the decision, “the Civil Aviation Authority in the Transportation Ministry will verify that security directives in foreign countries comply with the provisions of international conventions.”

A National Security Council document states, however, that “the Transportation Ministry is not acting in accordance with the decision.”

The transfer faced significant internal opposition, according to a source familiar with the discussions who spoke to Army Radio. The source said the ministry’s professional staff opposed accepting the responsibility, except Civil Aviation Authority Director Shmuel Zakai.

“Everyone dug in their heels and told Minister Miri Regev that it would be a serious mistake to assume such enormous responsibility,” the source said.