The Flydubai co-pilot at the center of the case involving an attempt to take control of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv had wanted to carry out his plan as early as the summer. According to sources familiar with the investigation, the co-pilot told investigators that he had nearly carried out such an attack in the summer, but later changed his mind.
He admitted that he had planned to take control of the aircraft in order to redirect it toward Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, and was prepared to do so during one of the July flights. Some sources claim he changed his intention out of concern for the life of one of the people on board.
According to published information, the man was motivated to take such action by the situation in the Gaza Strip.
On September 30, a Flydubai aircraft traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv issued an emergency signal and landed some time later in Saudi Arabia. The airline later confirmed that a physical altercation had occurred between the pilots during the flight.
Israeli authorities have characterized the incident as an attempted terrorist act. The UAE prosecutor's office, which is handling the investigation, has also stated that it was an attempted terror attack.
This case shows that the greatest vulnerability in aviation security is often not an external threat, but the insider entrusted with passengers' lives. Israeli and UAE law enforcement have reached the same conclusion in speaking of an attempted terror attack, but the investigation has yet to establish how far those assessments are supported by concrete evidence.
The information about the July episode is particularly noteworthy: if the co-pilot had indeed planned the operation in advance and only backed out at the last moment, then the airline's security systems noticed nothing until September 30. This raises serious questions about psychological screening and behavioral monitoring of flight crews.
The investigation is only just beginning, and much will depend on what is discovered through the study of the pilot's personal contacts, communications, and financial flows. For now, the published facts allow only a partial picture to be formed.
