Two Senior Transportation Ministry Officials Summoned for Open Testimony in flydubai Security Probe
Police are summoning two senior Transportation Ministry officials for open testimony Monday in the investigation of security failures surrounding the attempted hijacking of flydubai Flight 1073.
Israel Police on Monday are summoning two senior Transportation Ministry officials for open testimony in the investigation of security failures that preceded the attempted hijacking of flydubai Flight 1073.
The two are Avri Cohen, senior director of the ministry's Emergency, Information Security and Cyber Division, and Dvir Rubinstein, director of the Aviation Security Operations Center. Rubinstein is suspected of a conflict of interest after providing private consulting to foreign airlines, including flydubai, while serving in his government role. Cohen worked as a "reserve security officer" for Israeli airlines abroad without Civil Service Commission approval, according to reports.
On September 30, flydubai Flight 1073 from Dubai to Israel was nearly hijacked when co-pilot Hamam al-Mamami attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with an axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft and crash it at Ben Gurion Airport. The captain, relief air crew members and several passengers foiled the plot, and the plane landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
Police opened a preliminary review of the ministry's aviation security system in October; Monday's testimony marks the probe's advance to open testimony of the two officials.
A flydubai Boeing 737 at Krakow Airport, 2024. File photo; not the incident aircraft. (Photo: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)