Ethiopian Airlines Plane Denied Entry to Israel Over Indonesian Pilot

An Ethiopian Airlines cargo plane was forced to return to Addis Ababa and dump fuel over the sea after Israeli authorities discovered one of its pilots was an Indonesian citizen. Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Indonesia, and its citizens are barred from entering Israeli airspace. The flight had already departed Ethiopia when Israeli officials received the crew list, which revealed the pilot's nationality. Consequently, the aircraft was denied entry and rerouted.

The incident occurred shortly after a separate event involving a Flydubai flight, which was nearly hijacked by its Omani co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami. Following the Flydubai incident, Israeli authorities initiated a review of how foreign flight crews are vetted.

Responsibility for vetting foreign flights officially lies with Israel's Ministry of Transport. However, the ministry claims it lacks the intelligence capabilities to screen passengers and crew, relying instead on checks by departure countries and airline assurances. In the Flydubai case, the ministry did not receive the crew list, and the airline had promised to improve its screening processes after an earlier incident involving an Indonesian pilot. Despite these assurances, al-Hammami, from Oman, another country without diplomatic ties to Israel, was assigned to the Flydubai flight.

Further investigation revealed that a security unit within the Ministry of Transport had access to a database of foreign flight crew information since 2023 but had never utilized it. This access was only requested after a closed Knesset committee discussion following the Flydubai incident. Even after gaining access, it was discovered that the database could not provide citizenship information 48 hours before departure, as required by law, with updates occurring too close to the flight to be effective. The ministry expressed dissatisfaction with this system, which it had previously approved.

In May 2024, Israel's State Comptroller, Matanyahu Engelman, had already highlighted significant security flaws in the system for international air travel to and from Israel, recommending a comprehensive review of aviation security policy led by the National Security Council, involving multiple ministries and security agencies.