We are all grateful to the flydubai plane heroes but who is taking accountability? - editorial

As is customary in Israel, the elation and pride felt last week over the miraculous rescue of the hijacked flydubai plane and the courage displayed by a group of ordinary, but extraordinary, Israelis who saved the 174 mostly Israeli passengers has morphed into a blame game of accusations and evasions.

However much we should be grateful for the heroic actions of the Indian pilot, Capt. Smit Machchhar, and the Israeli passengers – Tzvika Manes, Yaniv Hayun, Dr. Shota Musayev, Asaf Rajuan, and Tzvika’s wife, Tali Manes, who was the first to raise the alarm on board after hearing a suspicious commotion coming from the flight deck – it’s now incumbent on the relevant authorities to examine how the events were allowed to materialize in the first place and draw conclusions and develop a system that will prevent such potential tragedies from occurring in the future.

It was no secret that flights to and from Israel from the UAE present security risks. In fact, since the onset of Iranian attacks against Israel earlier this year, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Israeli security forces had barred El Al, Arkia, and Israir from flying to the UAE, pending an agreement between the nations to resolve security-related issues.

The ban had stemmed from concerns about baggage screening, not the risk posed by pilots employed by foreign airlines, N12 news site reported.

Who was in charge of vetting the pilots? 

That appears to be the crux of the matter. Was any official Israeli body in charge of vetting the pilots who were flying into Israel?

Israeli regulations reportedly say pilots from states without diplomatic relations with Israel are prohibited from landing in the country. But there didn’t seem to be any mechanism in place – not by the Transportation Ministry, not by the Shin Bet, and not by the Mossad – to screen those pilots.

According to reports, pilots from unfriendly or hostile states – including Iran, Syria, and Iraq – have repeatedly landed planes in Israel in recent years. Those pilots have dual citizenship, with a second passport presumably issued by a nonbelligerent state, N12 reported.

A law stating that lists of flight crews would be sent to Israeli security agencies passed in 2023. On Saturday night, the Israel Tax Authority, tasked with reviewing incoming flights’ manifests, confirmed it had received the list of passengers and crew for flydubai flight 1073 before takeoff – a standard procedure for all flights under that legislation. The Mossad also had access to that list.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev said her ministry is not responsible for implementing security checks on incoming foreign pilots. The Shin Bet is responsible for security on Israeli carriers, and the Mossad is responsible for security on foreign carriers, she told KAN News on Saturday night.

“Those who are supposed to identify the crew are security officials,” she said. “We are not security officials. Those who are supposed to say what the threat level is, and whether you can travel to a given destination, are security officials.”

Tamir Uri, a senior official in the Transportation Ministry’s Security and Cyber Division, told Walla: “We have 120 airlines flying here. We are not the Shin Bet, and we don’t have people abroad.”

Netanyahu's government vows to fix security cracks

With nobody accepting responsibility, the body ultimately in charge, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, has vowed to fix the cracks in the process.

“Every pilot that is going to be flying into Israel, we are going to know the pilots’ identities, know who they are, and do some type of security check,” Prime Minister’s Office spokesperson Doron Spielman told Reuters last week.

Those might be welcome words, but how is it that such a system has not been in place and functioning already?

We’ve written on these pages that just as Israeli citizens had to take action due to government agency failure on October 7, 2023, Israeli citizens had to spring into action in the sky above Saudi Arabia to prevent a preventable tragedy from occurring. That’s not the way things should work.

As the euphoria over the midair rescue and achievements dissipates, it’s vital not only to conduct a proper investigation into the security gaps that enabled the hijacking, but also for all of the relevant authorities to stop shirking responsibility and work together to quash the likelihood that such a horrific event is ever able to get off the ground again.