Oman Banned FlyDubai Co-Pilot Over Concerns of Radical Views Prior to Incident

<p>Oman had banned the FlyDubai co-pilot accused of stabbing his captain in an attempted hijacking due to concerns that he had adopted "radical ideological views," according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. </p><p>Despite the ban, FlyDubai hired the Omani national, allowing him to operate flights between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. The Journal could not determine whether Oman had communicated its concerns about the individual to other airlines or countries.</p><p>Aviation-security analysts indicated that the incident revealed a significant security failure. They noted that even if a screening lapse allowed a weapon to pass through, a motivated assailant should have been intercepted before reaching the airport.</p><p>FlyDubai and the Omani government did not respond to The Journal’s request for comment. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the attacker had undergone Islamist radicalization.</p><p>“As time passes, the picture is becoming clearer,” Netanyahu said, according to foreign media. “Yaniv and his heroic friends prevented a disaster on the scale of September 11. The attacker underwent Islamist radicalization. He came to crash the plane with its passengers on board. We are now investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price.”</p><p>Netanyahu met with four passengers who helped subdue the attacker on Flydubai Flight FZ1073 — Yaniv Hayun, Or Pradilov, Dr. Shota Musaev, and his wife, Sigalit — and listened to their accounts of the struggle inside the cockpit, as reported by The Daily Wire.</p><p>The passengers recounted that they instructed the attacker to speak English so that everyone could understand him. They also expressed uncertainty about whether other crew members were involved.</p><p>“We tried to maintain control over the situation, because we couldn’t trust anyone,” one passenger said in a video released by Netanyahu’s office.</p><p>Passengers and crew members managed to overpower the attacker as the plane descended approximately 14,000 feet. Despite sustaining serious stab wounds, Captain Smit Machchhar assisted passengers in entering the cockpit before two reserve pilots on board took control of the aircraft. The plane landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, and the passengers later returned to Israel.</p><p>Four Americans were among the 174 passengers aboard the Tel Aviv-bound flight. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump commented on the situation, describing it as an “incredible story.”</p><p>“It seems as though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist, or perhaps a whack job. And he stabbed the pilot. The pilot was in very bad shape. I guess he still is in very bad shape,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.</p><p>Trump also commended the captain for opening the cockpit door to allow passengers to intervene. “He had the sense to—amazing. In a way, he was a hero—to open the door. You know, those doors are solid steel; you can’t get them open from outside.”</p>