Cargo Plane Denied Entry to Israel Over Indonesian Pilot

A cargo plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines was denied entry into Israeli airspace on Tuesday morning and forced to return to its origin in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The incident occurred because one of the pilots aboard held Indonesian citizenship, a country with which Israel has no diplomatic relations. Israeli security authorities flagged the pilot after receiving the flight crew's data, leading to the refusal of entry.

Following the security denial, the aircraft had to jettison its fuel over the sea according to procedure before returning to Ethiopia. The plane was only allowed to re-depart for Israel after the Indonesian pilot was replaced with one approved by Israeli authorities. This event highlights Israel's stringent security checks for foreign flight crews entering its airspace.

However, the incident also exposed a procedural flaw, as passenger and crew manifests are reportedly only provided to Israeli security and diagnostic bodies, the National Passenger Diagnostic Center (NADC), after the plane has already departed. This prevents pre-departure cancellations and necessitates returning aircraft mid-flight.

The heightened security measures follow a more serious incident involving a Flydubai flight where an attempted hijacking by a pilot with Omani citizenship occurred. Similar to the current case, that pilot was a citizen of a country with no diplomatic ties with Israel, and the crew list had not been submitted for prior inspection.

While Israel's security warning and diagnostic systems are now operating more effectively upon receiving data, the process of submitting manifests before departure and the technical integration between the Ministry of Transportation and data repositories still require comprehensive regulation. Tal Aviation, a company involved in aviation services, stated that the cargo flight was not managed by their group and that the crew list initially lacked information on countries with no diplomatic relations with Israel. They confirmed the flight returned to Addis Ababa and would depart again with an approved crew.