The co-pilot accused of attacking the captain of a flydubai flight to Israel had previously been barred from flying in Oman over concerns about his extremist views, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The WSJ said that Omani authorities had banned the pilot from flying over concerns he had adopted radical ideological views, citing people familiar with the matter.
The sources said Flydubai later hired the pilot, allowing him to operate flights on the route between the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
It was not immediately clear whether Oman had shared its concerns about the pilot’s extremism with other countries or airlines. There was also no information about the nature of the views that led to him being described as an extremist.
UAE authorities are leading the investigation into the incident. A UAE government spokesman declined to comment on the attacker’s record in Oman, saying it would be inappropriate to “preempt the findings of the investigation or influence its course.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday described Wednesday’s incident, in which a Flydubai plane came close to being brought down, as a terrorist act. He said the attacker “came with the intention of bringing down the plane with everyone on board.”
Aviation security analysts said the incident represented a major security failure. While a lapse in screening procedures may have allowed a weapon to get through, they said, an attacker with such motives should have been identified and stopped long before reaching the airport.
Netanyahu said Israel was investigating whether the pilot had carried out the attack alone or had been acting in coordination with others.
The captain and co-pilot are being investigated in the UAE after being transferred there on Thursday from Tabuk, where the plane made an emergency landing. Israel hopes to be able to question the attacker.
The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv came close to disaster on Wednesday morning when the attacker stabbed the captain.
People who were on board told interviewers that the captain, who was seriously wounded, managed to open the cockpit door, allowing a group of passengers and crew members to overpower the attacker. Two reserve pilots who were on the flight then managed to regain control of the aircraft, stabilize it and land safely.
