The Transportation Ministry rejected responsibility on Sunday for conducting intelligence background checks on foreign airline pilots, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assigning responsibility for the security of foreign flights to the ministry and its Security Division in mid-2025.
The ministry's position has come under scrutiny following the attempted terror hijacking by an Omani flydubai pilot who had previously landed at Ben-Gurion Airport, raising questions over what checks were carried out on foreign airline crews and which Israeli body was responsible for them.
In 2021, the Shin Bet removed itself from responsibility for securing foreign flights while the Transportation Ministry did not act to assume that responsibility, according to a report published Sunday by Army Radio. The State Comptroller subsequently highlighted the issue in a classified report issued in May 2024, the report said.
Netanyahu assigned responsibility for foreign-flight security to the Transportation Ministry and its Security Division in mid-2025. Behind the scenes, officials in the division strongly opposed the move, citing a lack of tools, authority and budget to carry out the responsibility. No security agency or the division itself subsequently raised the issue or sought assistance, according to Army Radio.
Now, following the flydubai incident, the Transportation Ministry emphasized that its role does not include intelligence background checks on individual foreign pilots.
Tamir Uri, a senior official in the ministry's Security and Cyber Division, told Walla that the division conducts security assessments of aviation to Israel with airlines and local authorities, but does not conduct intelligence background checks.
"The Security Division carries out a security assessment of aviation to Israel with the airline and local authorities. We request a declaration that all pilots have undergone a security background check. We are not an intelligence agency that conducts intelligence background checks. We have 120 airlines flying here. We are not the Shin Bet, and we don't have people abroad," Uri said.
What checks were carried out on the flydubai crew?
Israeli authorities are now examining whether pilots with dual citizenship, including citizenship in Iran, Syria or Iraq, have landed at Ben-Gurion Airport in recent years, as scrutiny grows over the alleged attempt by an Omani flydubai pilot to crash a plane carrying 174 passengers, N12 reported on Saturday.
The pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, allegedly tried to crash the aircraft during the flight to Tel Aviv. He had previously visited Israel and had last landed at Ben-Gurion Airport one week before the incident, according to N12.
Israeli officials have not yet been allowed to question al-Hammami and are currently relying on information from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the report said. Israeli officials could be granted access to him later.
Uri said the Transportation Ministry was not given the names of the flydubai pilots in advance.
"The names were not passed on to us beforehand," he said. "Our procedures do not even include a threat of this kind, in which a pilot would carry out a terrorist attack."
The crew list was nevertheless provided to the National Passenger Data Analysis Center, which operates under the Israel Tax Authority and distributes the information to relevant government agencies, including the Shin Bet, Mossad and Israel Police.
The Transportation Ministry said it did not receive the list, adding that it oversees airlines and their crews based on declarations made by the airlines themselves.
N12 reported that the ministry's Security Division held its first briefing with reporters since the alleged attack and denied claims that it had received the names of the flight crew in advance.
According to the division, foreign airlines conduct background checks on their own crews, while the ministry requests confirmation that those checks have been completed. The division said it is not an intelligence body and therefore relies on the airline and the country from which the airline operates.
"We believe there have been no such cases in the past, in which pilots with this kind of background arrived in Israel," Uri said. "Our working assumption is that this has not happened."
At the same time, ministry officials said they could not state with certainty which pilots had landed in Israel in recent years.
The defense establishment is now considering whether other pilots posing similar risks could be employed by foreign airlines, according to N12. Israeli authorities are working with international partners to identify any such pilots.
N12 also reported that no Israeli authority had known that Oman had suspended al-Hammami from flying or that he had undergone a process of religious radicalization.
The report said foreign airlines had not been subject to direct monitoring by the Transportation Ministry's Security Division, with the airlines themselves responsible for checking their pilots' backgrounds.
Israeli intelligence agencies also did not conduct routine intelligence monitoring of the backgrounds of foreign pilots, according to N12.
The suspicion under examination is that al-Hammami planned the alleged attempt to crash the aircraft over a prolonged period, raising questions over why the threat was not identified beforehand.
N12 also reported that Shin Bet chief David Zini had barred Israeli airlines from flying to Dubai several months earlier over concerns about baggage screening, but no comparable action had been taken regarding pilots employed by foreign airlines.
Civil Aviation Authority says it has no security responsibility
The division of responsibility extends beyond the Transportation Ministry's Security Division.
Shmuel Zakai, head of the Civil Aviation Authority, told Walla that the authority has no responsibility for aviation security under a government decision.
"Under a government decision, the Civil Aviation Authority has no responsibility whatsoever for security matters. We are responsible for safety. All security matters are the responsibility of other bodies," Zakai said.
Zakai also addressed the fact that al-Hammami held an Omani passport.
"If an Omani citizen does not have a visa or an entry permit for Israel, he is not supposed to board a flight there," he said.
"The airline knows that it was not permitted to operate this aircraft with a pilot holding an Omani passport who is barred from entering Israel," Zakai added.
Uri, meanwhile, said the security system governing foreign airlines cannot provide an absolute guarantee against such an incident.
"There is [no such thing as 100% security]. That would mean stopping aviation to Israel," he told Walla. "Israeli airlines carry out security screening using Israeli teams. That is not the case with foreign airlines."
The Security Division similarly told Israeli media that there was no way to provide a "100% guarantee" that an incident of this kind could not happen again, because doing so would effectively require halting foreign aviation to Israel.
Zakai said flydubai's flights to Israel had been halted while the circumstances of the incident were investigated.
"Flydubai stopped its flights to Israel for two reasons: The authorities instructed the company to stop the flights to Israel until the investigation is completed, in order to make sure there is no additional breach and that this was a lone attacker," he said.
"A fundamental rule is that the country from which the aircraft departs is responsible for security," Zakai said.
He added that the security cabinet had decided, on the recommendation of the transportation minister and the Shin Bet, that flydubai would not resume flights to Israel until the circumstances of the incident had been clarified.
Zakai also said that under Israel's Aviation Services Law, an airline that cancels a flight less than 14 days before its scheduled departure is required to compensate passengers, and that the requirement also applies to flydubai in the current case.
Regev says Mossad, Shin Bet responsible for intelligence vetting
Transportation Minister Miri Regev addressed the issue on Saturday evening in an interview with KAN 11, maintaining that her ministry was not responsible for screening intelligence information or vetting foreign airline crews.
"Aviation security is a very complex issue. The entire intelligence issue is divided between the Mossad and the Shin Bet," Regev said.
She said the agencies had a clear division of responsibility.
"The Shin Bet is responsible for Israeli flights, and the Mossad is responsible for foreign companies. flydubai is a foreign company. It is not connected to the Shin Bet but to the Mossad," she said.
Regev said passenger and crew lists were sent to other authorities rather than the Transportation Ministry.
"The list did not come to us, because the body that is supposed to identify the crew is an intelligence body. We are not an intelligence body," she said.
She cited the evacuation of Israelis from Saudi Arabia as an example, saying the ministry had decided flydubai would transport them only after the crew received security clearance.
"We made a decision that the one to bring them would be flydubai, but only after the crew received clearance. Who gave clearance to the crew? The Mossad," she said.
Regev also described the possibility of similar incidents involving foreign airline pilots as a broader international challenge.
"In France and in the European Union, they don't check the pilots. How would you know that the pilot at Air France doesn't have terrorist aspects? There is a new global danger here that we will have to examine how to deal with," she said.
The security cabinet is expected to convene on Sunday to discuss details of the flydubai investigation, which the Mossad and Shin Bet are conducting in cooperation with authorities in the United Arab Emirates, according to KAN.