Iranian and Other Foreign Pilots Landed in Israel for Years Amid Security Lapses

A severe security negligence in Israel's civil aviation services allowed over 1,200 aircrew members from countries with no diplomatic ties to Israel, including Lebanon, Syria, Oman, and Iran, to enter the country between the start of 2026 and the present. This alarming revelation emerged during a closed-door discussion by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Professional officials admitted to the startling figures, which surprised even representatives from the Ministry of Transportation present at the meeting. Questions remain about whether these crews underwent border control or simply landed and departed. The security lapse came to light following an attempted attack on a Flydubai flight, where an Omani citizen managed to sit in the cockpit.

A internal security document titled "Security Directive 2026" indicates that the Ministry of Transportation, headed by Minister Miri Regev, is legally responsible for establishing security procedures for foreign flights, including thorough screening and identity checks of pilots. Despite legal provisions granting the ministry the authority to enforce strict security measures and conduct periodic inspections, these regulations have been neglected for years.

The ongoing failure was fully exposed by the Flydubai incident, revealing that the system did not adequately verify the nationalities of flight crews. While a new directive requires ensuring no crew member is a citizen of an enemy state, the necessary checks and cross-referencing against restricted nationalities were never performed. This neglect meant pilots from enemy states routinely controlled aircraft en route to Israel, a situation that nearly resulted in a catastrophic accident when a Boeing aircraft plunged thousands of feet before being saved by the quick thinking of passengers and crew.