Transportation Ministry Responsible for Foreign Flight Crew Checks, Document Reveals

A recently revealed internal security document indicates that Israel's Ministry of Transportation holds the legal authority and responsibility for vetting foreign flight crews, including pilots, entering the country. This revelation comes in the wake of an incident where an Omani co-pilot, from a country with no diplomatic ties to Israel, was on board a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv. The document, issued by the Ministry of Transportation's senior director of emergency, security, information, and cyber affairs, Avri Cohen, explicitly states that the ministry is responsible for security procedures on flights entering Israel according to the Civil Aviation Security Law. The law empowers the ministry to enforce strict security measures and conduct site inspections at relevant airports to assess threats. The directive mandates that airlines verify that no flight crew member is a citizen of a country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. However, the article alleges that this directive has not been enforced for years, with the Ministry of Transportation failing to conduct necessary inspections or cross-reference crew lists with restricted nationalities. This oversight allegedly allowed pilots from countries without diplomatic ties to Israel to routinely fly into the country, a situation that nearly led to disaster on the Flydubai flight. The emergency directive itself was issued just one day after the incident involving the Flydubai flight.