Flydubai co-pilot planned to crash plane into airport, reports suggest

Questions are also being asked about major security lapses, including how the attacker was recruited by flydubai and given clearance to fly a plane filled with Israelis to Tel Aviv.

Regional officials said the co-pilot was barred from flying by Oman’s national carrier, Oman Air, and moved to an administrative job because of concerns about his extremist views.

He was later hired by UAE-based flydubai after undergoing standard security checks that did not examine his background for potential signs of radicalisation, according to the officials.

Israeli aviation regulations also state that pilots who are citizens of countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel, like Oman, are not permitted to operate flights to the country.

Regional officials told the Associated Press on Sunday that Emirati authorities had shared with Israel a list of passengers and crew ahead of flight FZ1073’s departure.

Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency said the transport ministry was responsible for vetting such lists from foreign airlines.

But Transport Minister Miri Regev said her ministry was not given passenger and crew lists, and that security oversight for flights operated by foreign airlines fell under the remit of the Shin Bet and the Mossad foreign intelligence agency.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has told the head of the National Security Council to review “all security aspects regarding foreign civil aviation to Israel”.

Australian authorities are investigating the co-pilot’s links to Australia. Sources have told local media that he studied there between 2015 and 2017.