The FlyDubai co-pilot who officials said nearly crashed a Tel Aviv-bound flight was barred from flying by Oman over concerns that he had adopted extremist views, a person familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
The co-pilot was subsequently hired by the United Arab Emirates-based airline, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
It was not immediately clear to what extent he was vetted when he was hired in the Emirates. Oman’s move to bar the co-pilot from flying was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The attack left the region’s travel industry in crisis, raising questions about aviation security and further unsettling a Middle East already shaken by the US-Iran war.
A regional investigation is underway.
The United Arab Emirates has cancelled all flights to Israel, complicating travel for hundreds of passengers who fly between the countries on a typical day.
Israel and the UAE agreed on repatriation flights, beginning Friday, to bring back passengers stranded in the UAE after commercial travel between the two countries was suspended, according to an Israeli official who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The first repatriation flight left the UAE shortly before 11pm and landed in Tel Aviv just after 1am, according to the Ben Gurion International Airport website.
The airport listed carriers Arkia and Israir with flights scheduled to arrive from Dubai early on Saturday. El Al was expected to fly passengers from Dubai to Israel on Sunday.
Dubai has been a popular destination for Israelis since Israel and the UAE established ties in 2020 as part of the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords to normalise ties between Israel and Arab countries.
US President Donald Trump told reporters that early information he has received suggests links between the attack and Tehran but did not elaborate.
Mr Trump also said that if it is determined that Iranian agents were behind the attack, the United States will “hit them very hard”.
Israeli investigators are involved in the probe but the Emiratis are in the lead, according to an official who was not authorised to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
It is unclear if the attacker was part of a group, said the official, adding that there is currently no evidence of a link with Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the co-pilot had undergone “Islamist radicalisation”, but has provided no evidence to back the assertion.
“We are now investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price,” Mr Netanyahu said in a video message on Friday.
UAE senior diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash on Friday called the FlyDubai attack a “dangerous terrorist act” in a post on X.
He credited the flight captain for preventing a catastrophe.
The moment is a test for the UAE government, which has burnished a reputation for building effective measures against extremist activities but has also bristled in the past over criticism of security lapses.
“The Emiratis are going to be interested in protecting their reputation,” said Jon Alterman, chair of Global Security and Geostrategy at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“They believe people should see them as a place that’s very secure, not a place that has serious lapses.”
Details of the harrowing flight, in which other crew members on board landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday, continue to emerge.
Smit Machchhar, the wounded captain who has been hailed as one of the heroes of the flight, and the co-pilot were transferred on Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the UAE, the kingdom said.
Mr Machchhar is recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital.
He spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised video call on Friday, describing the terror he faced after being attacked in the closed cockpit.
“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” he said, his head bandaged, as he broke into sobs. “I was fighting for my life. At one point, I realised that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.”
The first signs of trouble came more than two hours into the flight when the aircraft suddenly dropped to 16,600 feet — the sharpest altitude drop recorded by data tracking platforms.
