The passengers aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv survived because a wounded captain, some passengers and reserve pilots prevented a disaster.

When they returned to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was there to welcome them. It was a perfect opportunity for photographs: Netanyahu standing beside passengers of a plane who had escaped death. Missing from the public discussion was the question his government needed to answer. Why had their survival depended on a heavily injured pilot doing what a robust security system should have made unnecessary?

The September 30 flight had come close to disaster when its Omani copilot, Hamam al-Hammami, allegedly attacked the Indian captain, Smit Machchhar, with a crash axe. Despite his injuries, Machchhar opened the cockpit door, reportedly allowing passengers to overpower the attacker. The aircraft eventually safely landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

But this cannot serve as an excuse for the failures that endangered the passengers.

Those failures extend beyond the cockpit. The United Arab Emirates, from where the flight started, says that Israel received the passenger and crew details before departure. Questions have emerged about the Omani copilot’s record: he is reported to have been grounded by his previous employer, Oman Air, for visiting Islamist websites, Flydubai’s airline’s vetting of his job application and how this information was handled across borders.

Flydubai and the United Arab Emirates must explain their decisions. But Netanyahu cannot outsource his government’s responsibility simply because the aircraft belonged to a foreign airline.

Israel’s arrangements for supervising foreign airlines had already attracted warnings. A state comptroller report in 2024 had already identified deficiencies. The country’s transportation ministry faces allegations from the opposition leaders and the former head of National Security Council that it failed to act on repeated alerts about inadequate security checks. Questions have also been asked about the director of Israel’s Aviation Security Operation providing consultancy........

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