Israel to Overhaul Passenger and Crew Screening After FlyDubai Incident

Following an attempted terror attack on a FlyDubai flight, Israel is preparing to significantly alter security screening procedures for international flights. Minister of Transport Miri Regev has proposed requiring airlines to submit passenger and crew data 48 hours before flights to Israel. For flights originating from countries and cities designated as high-risk, these lists will undergo additional vetting by the Mossad or the Shin Bet, according to Globes.

Regev sent an urgent letter to the head of the National Security Council outlining proposals to prevent similar incidents. She noted that the necessary authority does not lie directly with the Ministry of Transport and requested the National Security Council involve relevant government bodies. The initiative, nicknamed the "visa procedure," would mandate airlines to provide details on all passengers and flight and cabin crew to the Population and Immigration Authority 48 hours in advance.

Other Israeli media suggest this could involve a one-time aviation permit for passengers and crews on foreign, Israeli, and charter flights. For routes deemed high-threat, a stricter process is proposed, with passenger and crew lists submitted to the Ministry of Transport's security department 48 hours prior. These lists would then be forwarded to the Mossad or Shin Bet for verification, depending on inter-agency agreements. Dubai has been cited as an example of a high-risk destination.

Regev has called for a list of such destinations to be finalized by Thursday, October 8, along with a decision on which intelligence agency will conduct the checks. New requirements are expected to be distributed to all airlines, with the Ministry of Transport aiming to implement the procedure by Sunday, October 11.

Separate proposals address charter flights operated by Israeli airlines using foreign aircraft and crews, where security oversight was found to be less stringent than on regular Israeli carrier flights. Regev has requested the Ministry of Finance allocate approximately 40 million shekels and ten additional positions to enhance control over these flights. These resources, reportedly approved by the cabinet in December, have yet to be released.

New instructions for airlines, covering both foreign carriers and Israeli companies using leased planes and foreign crews, are being prepared by the Ministry of Transport, its security division, and the Shin Bet. Israel already maintains a centralized passenger data database, established by a 2022 Knesset law, managed by the Tax Authority's National Center for Passenger and Crew Data Analysis. The Shin Bet, Mossad, and police have full access, while ministries like transport can submit requests for information. The Ministry of Transport claims it previously did not receive data from this base and lacks independent authority to vet foreign crew members, though Globes notes the ministry had the capability to request such data but did not.

An additional concern involves current security regulations for foreign airlines, where government decisions place responsibility on the Ministry of Transport. However, the system, approved by the National Security Council, has largely relied on assessing the reliability of the airline's home country's aviation and security structures rather than individual crew vetting. This need for change was highlighted after the FlyDubai incident. Parliamentary hearings revealed that around 1,240 foreign aircrew members from countries without diplomatic ties with Israel, including citizens of Syria and Lebanon, entered Israel in 2026. The co-pilot of the FlyDubai flight, Hamam al-Hammami, who allegedly attempted the attack and seriously injured Captain Smith Machchar, holds Omani citizenship through his father and his mother is a Syrian native.