The Omani co-pilot suspected of trying to hijack and crash a flydubai flight to Israel held no second nationality, sources with knowledge of the investigation told The Jerusalem Post on Friday.
The disclosure addresses one of the questions raised after Wednesday’s attack aboard Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv: whether the suspect held citizenship in another country that could have explained his assignment to an Israel-bound flight.
The aircraft made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, after the co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain. Passengers subdued the attacker, and additional pilots traveling aboard the aircraft helped bring it down safely.
“He has no other nationality,” a source said.
The sources also said the bilateral aviation agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates did not stipulate that pilots operating flights between the two countries must be nationals of countries maintaining diplomatic relations with Israel.
That account adds a new dimension to the dispute over how the Omani co-pilot was permitted to operate the flight. Oman does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, and the suspect’s nationality was central to Transportation Minister Miri Regev’s request on Wednesday to halt flydubai flights to and from the country.
Questions over the conditions for flying to Israel
A Transportation Ministry source previously told the Post that flydubai’s agreement to operate in Israel required pilots to be nationals of countries that had normalized relations with Israel.
“This is a clear breach of the agreement,” the ministry source said at the time, calling for the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, to investigate.
The sources’ account on Friday concerned the bilateral aviation agreement. It did not address whether a separate operating or security arrangement imposed additional requirements on flydubai. Their description therefore does not, on its own, resolve whether the co-pilot’s assignment violated the conditions governing the airline’s flights to Israel.
The sources provided no further information about the suspect’s motives or possible connections to others.
Pilot underwent radical Islamist indoctrination, Netanyahu reveals
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the co-pilot had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination, while cautioning that final conclusions had not been reached. Israeli security officials told Reuters that the initial assessment was that he had acted alone, though the investigation remained ongoing.
The UAE’s attorney-general ordered prosecutors to investigate the incident, including whether it involved terrorist activity, advance planning or direction. The announcement also urged against drawing conclusions before investigators had established the facts.
In a separate interview published by the Post on Thursday, an Israeli passenger identified as Tal described an interval during the confrontation when the cockpit was empty, and the aircraft was descending. He said he urged two additional pilots forward while other passengers fought the attacker. The precise sequence inside the cockpit and the duration of that interval have not been independently established by the Post.