Netanyahu Orders Review of Foreign Aviation Security After Dubai Flight Incident

Five days after an attempted hijacking of a Flydubai flight to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged security lapses and ordered a thorough review of foreign civilian aviation security. The directive, issued Sunday, tasks National Security Advisor Shmuel Ben Ezra with appointing an examiner to assess all aspects of foreign aviation security into Israel. The decision comes after years of warnings about deficiencies in this area, including a May 2024 report by State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman that highlighted serious failures in the security of international civilian aviation to and from Israel, specifically mentioning foreign airlines.

The Ministry of Transport is nominally responsible for foreign flights, with its Security, Emergency, and Cyber Department tasked with assessing risks and providing security guidelines. However, the ministry claims it lacks the intelligence capabilities for background checks on crew and passengers, relying instead on the security measures of countries of origin and the airlines' own commitments. In the Flydubai incident, the crew list was not received by the Ministry of Transport, and an Omani pilot, Maam Al-Hami, who was reportedly restricted from flying to Israel due to his country's relations with the Jewish state, was assigned to the flight.

Further complicating matters, the Ministry of Transport's Security Department suffers from significant understaffing, with eight employees leaving between 2022 and 2025, and its official staffing level reduced. The department currently operates with only about ten full-time permanent employees. Despite a 2023 law granting the Security Department access to a database including foreign flight crew data, this access has not been utilized.

Ideas to consolidate responsibility for aviation security are not new. A proposal to establish a state authority for aviation security was submitted in 2011, and subsequent committees led by the National Security Council also recommended such a body, but these recommendations have not been implemented. The current review, prompted by the Flydubai incident, brings the issue back to the National Security Council. Former Head of the Ministry of Transport's Security Department, Dani Shenar, warned that the danger is not limited to Dubai, highlighting lower security levels at smaller airports in peripheral areas and on islands, which serve as departure points for flights to Israel.