I have spent the last several nights thinking about Flydubai Flight 1073, and there is a question I cannot shake. I think we should all be asking it: How did this flight ever leave Dubai with this crew?
The extraordinary story of what happened in the air has understandably dominated the headlines. A captain was stabbed. Passengers rushed the cockpit. A reserve crew aboard was ultimately able to take control of an aircraft that had plunged roughly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds.
More than 170 people were aboard. They survived. That is extraordinary. I would go further: It is a miracle. But as a journalist, I keep coming back to what happened before Flight 1073 ever left the ground.
I SURVIVED A HIJACKING IN 1972. THE FLYDUBAI CRISIS PROVES ONE BRUTAL TRUTH
Under security arrangements reportedly governing Flydubai flights to Israel, pilots from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel were not supposed to operate the route. Oman does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Yet, an Omani first officer was sitting in the cockpit of a flight bound for Tel Aviv.
That fact deserves far more scrutiny than it has received.
This was not information anyone discovered at 34,000 feet. Pilots do not show up for work anonymously. Airlines know who is flying their airplanes. There are crew rosters, passports, licenses, employment records, and schedules.
Flydubai knew who it employed. It knew who it assigned to Flight 1073. It knew the destination was Israel. And it knew the terms under which it was permitted to operate that route.
Israel didn’t hire this pilot. Israel didn’t schedule this pilot. Flydubai did.
More troubling still, reports indicate this may not have been an isolated occurrence. Dozens of Omani pilots reportedly flew Flydubai’s Israel route before Flight 1073.
If those reports are correct, this stops looking like one scheduling mistake and starts looking like a compliance problem.
A mistake happens once. A practice happens repeatedly. If dozens of Omani pilots were assigned to this route, Flydubai needs to explain which one this was.
That distinction matters.
Airlines operating international routes do so under layers of agreements, security requirements, and regulatory obligations. Those requirements are not suggestions, particularly when the destination is a country facing persistent aviation and terrorism threats.
A restriction on who may pilot an aircraft into Israel exists for a reason. If Flydubai repeatedly assigned crews that did not comply with that restriction, then the appropriate response is not simply to correct the next crew roster. Every security obligation governing those flights deserves review.
That means examining what Flydubai was required to verify about its crews, what security procedures it agreed to perform, and what certifications accompanied its flights to Israel. It means determining whether the nationality restriction was the only requirement that went unenforced, or merely the first one exposed.
There is another reason this matters beyond Israel. Flydubai is not a small regional operation. It flies to more than 125 destinations across 56 countries, from Europe and Africa to Central and South Asia and across the Middle East.
That opens another uncomfortable question. If a contractual requirement governing one international route was repeatedly disregarded, what would a review of Flydubai’s agreements with its other 55 countries reveal?
I don’t know the answer. After Flight 1073, I think those countries may want to know.
Flydubai has said it is cooperating with authorities. It has not publicly explained how an Omani first officer came to be assigned to this route despite the reported restriction.
That explanation matters, particularly because reports suggest Omani pilots had flown the route before.
There is another remarkable part of this story that deserves more attention: the reserve pilots aboard Flight 1073.
There were four pilots on that aircraft. The captain was stabbed. The first officer is accused of attacking him. And a reserve crew was aboard and ultimately able to take control of the aircraft and land it safely in Saudi Arabia.
Their presence proved critical.
Consider the alternative.
The captain had been seriously wounded. The first officer was allegedly trying to bring down the aircraft. The plane had plunged roughly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds.
Without another qualified crew aboard to take control, the ending to this story could have been unimaginably different.
What happened aboard Flight 1073 increasingly appears to have been an attempted terrorist attack on an aircraft carrying more than 170 people to Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said investigators have found indications that the co-pilot underwent Islamist radical indoctrination and was suicidal. Israeli security officials currently believe he likely acted alone, although the investigation continues.
Those findings make the questions surrounding Flydubai’s compliance even more urgent.
The investigation cannot stop with the man accused of carrying out the attack. It must also examine the system that placed him in that cockpit.
If reporting about the nationality restriction is correct, the public deserves to know exactly what Flydubai agreed to when it began operating flights to Israel and whether those obligations were being honored.
Because this story did not begin when a pilot allegedly pulled out a weapon. It began before the aircraft ever left the ground.
Everyone survived this time.
HEROES JUST STOPPED A HIJACKING. MAMDANI CAN’T EVEN DEFINE ANTISEMITISM
A wounded captain opened a door. Passengers ran toward the cockpit. A reserve crew was there to take control. An aircraft falling from the sky was recovered. A runway in Saudi Arabia was waiting.
It is difficult to read that sequence without seeing a miracle. Flight 1073 got one. Aviation security cannot depend on getting another.
Ariella Noveck is a journalist specializing in antisemitism and Middle East affairs, with extensive experience covering Jewish communities worldwide. She can be followed on X and Instagram @AriellaNoveck