Flydubai hijack ruled terror; Mossad probes Omani pilot

Israel officially classified the incident aboard a Flydubai aircraft as a terror attack Wednesday evening. According to initial findings, the leading direction in the investigation is that the perpetrator was a lone actor, an Omani civilian pilot, who intended to crash the plane carrying passengers, including Israeli citizens, Channel 13 reported.

The incident ended without catastrophe, but Israeli security officials are treating the case with extreme severity and defining it as a serious security failure requiring immediate and comprehensive lessons.

A senior security official told Channel 13 the incident represents a first-degree intelligence and security failure that could have ended in a major humanitarian and aviation disaster.

The dramatic event has exposed significant failures in the screening and vetting systems for air crews at foreign airlines operating routes to and from Israel. A preliminary Shin Bet investigation found there were no advance warnings of the attack, and the central failure lies in the fact that an active pilot for a carrier flying to Israel turned out to be a terrorist.

According to the security source, background checks conducted on pilots constitute a consistent weak point in the global security apparatus, and the Omani pilot managed to pass through all existing approval and screening systems before entering the cockpit. The Israel Airports Authority and security establishment are now conducting an in-depth review of how an Omani-origin pilot received official clearance to reach Israel.

F-35 Adir fighter jet (Photo: Lockheed Martin)

Given the severity of the incident and its international implications, Israel decided that the Mossad will lead the investigation, with a special joint Mossad-Shin Bet team established for this purpose. The team is working to gather every shred of information regarding the pilot's background, connections and motives that led him to attempt the attack.

As of Wednesday evening, security sources say they have no clear indications pointing to direct intent by Iran or another organized entity. At the same time, the investigation faces certain difficulties because Saudi authorities, who are involved in handling the incident, are not sharing many details of the investigation being conducted on their territory with Israel.

At the height of the drama, the IDF Chief of Staff, Shin Bet director and Mossad chief held an urgent conference call to consolidate the intelligence and operational picture. Following a joint situation assessment by Israel Police and the Shin Bet, it was decided that immediately upon the aircraft's landing in Israel, all passengers and crew members would be transferred for immediate Shin Bet interrogation.

Alongside the security investigation in Israel, the midair drama is also drawing responses and hints in the regional and political arena. Former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander and senior Iranian regime figure Mohsen Rezaei sent a veiled and explicit threat toward the United Arab Emirates following the incident.

In a post he published, Rezaei addressed relations between the countries and regional cooperation, writing that just as hosting American military bases has not brought the Emirates security, hosting "the butcher from Gaza" will not yield positive results for them either. In his remarks, he called on the Emirates to learn the lessons from the recent war, cease stoking confrontations and abandon claims regarding the disputed islands, exploiting the aviation attack to apply political pressure and threatening the normalization of relations in the region.

The rescue flight that took off from the Saudi airport following the attempted attack landed in Israel, where 174 passengers were met at Ben Gurion Airport by dozens of ambulances. Magen David Adom reported that MDA teams together with the airport clinic staff were prepared with intensive care units and ambulances to receive the flight's passengers. After medical examinations, it was confirmed that all passengers arrived safely, except for one passenger who was evacuated to hospital with a chest injury.