New Delhi: A rule requiring pilots flying UAE airlines to Israel to hold passports from countries that have diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv is under scrutiny after a stabbing and alleged hijacking incident on flydubai flight 1073 on Wednesday.
Flydubai, according to a Jerusalem Post report, has an explicit clause stating that all its pilots must be from countries that have normalised relations with Israel. Oman does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Israeli authorities have now asked internal security and counterintelligence service Shin Bet to look into how an Omani was flying in the aircraft.
According to the Times of Israel, the co-pilot, identified in some reports as an Omani national, stabbed captain Smit Machhar and tried to crash the plane. The CNN quoted an Israeli official as saying that the Omani pilot had never previously landed in Israel.
The flight from Dubai was diverted to Saudi Arabia, and Israeli authorities reportedly assessed that one of the pilots may have attempted a terror attack.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev has demanded that flydubai’s flights to Israel be suspended and asked the country’s Civil Aviation Authority to investigate whether the UAE had violated its aviation agreement with Israel.
Flydubai’s Israel flights are now temporarily suspended.
Reports differ on where the clause sits. The Jerusalem Post, citing an Israeli ministry source, said flydubai’s own agreement to operate in Israel contains the requirement. If it is in the bilateral agreement, it would apply to other UAE carriers as well. Etihad also flies between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv.
No report says how the clause is applied to Etihad or any other airline.
Israel and the UAE signed an air transport services agreement in 2020 after the normalisation of diplomatic ties. It allowed Emirati airlines 28 weekly passenger flights to Tel Aviv, unlimited flights to Eilat port in Israel and cargo flights, with no restrictions on unscheduled flights.
According to CNN, flydubai typically operates about 70 flights a week to Tel Aviv and has recently been the only carrier on the route.
The 2020 bilateral aviation agreement mentions nothing on pilot nationality. There are however few clauses like Article 7(2) which says the crew are subject to the host state’s entry, immigration and passport laws. Article 13(2)–(3) says airlines may bring their own managerial, commercial, operational and technical staff, “of any nationality”.
The only mention of diplomatic relations is in Article 20(3) which says that the third arbitrator must be a national of a state with relations with both parties.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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