“The threat now is inside the cockpit now and regulators across the world must start sharing records on pilots to deal with it”, aviation expert Sanjay Lazar told NDTV days after the flydubai attack. The incident, he said, exposes a dangerous gap between national regulators and called for a centralised system to flag pilots removed over security concerns.
“Till now, regulators, aviators, companies were dealing with the threat outside the cockpit. When Indian captain Smit Machchhar tried to intervene, the co-pilot attacked him. The Associated Press identified the co-pilot as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami. He had been with flydubai for about nine months. Oman has not commented.
What Happened His suggestion comes days after the co-pilot of a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight carrying 174 passengers tried to crash the flight. ABC News, citing intelligence and law enforcement officials, reported that the 29-year-old was suspended by Oman Air as a security risk after being found with extremist material in 2024.
Now the threat is inside the cockpit,” Lazar said, “You can’t have an enemy in the cockpit. UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi has said the co-pilot attacked the captain with a crash axe and tried to take control of the aircraft. ABC also cited sources saying he told investigators he intended to crash the aircraft in Israeli territory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is examining whether anyone directed him. flydubai has halted all flights on its Israel route. “Regulator To Regulator” Lazar said a removal over suspected radicalisation should have been reported to Oman’s regulator. In India, Lazar said, routine hiring involves checks with the previous employer, medical and educational records, and police clearance covering criminal records and FIRs.
Crew on VVIP flights face a far deeper process involving the IB, CBI and CID, including checks on family background. He also flagged a gap in cross-border licensing. He cautioned against painting all pilots with one brush.
Citing Germanwings and 9/11, he said changes like those after 9/11, including closer registration of pilots and cabin crew and possibly observers on high-risk sectors such as flights to Tel Aviv should happen.
“I believe the time may have come for similar clearance on sensitive routes,” he said. “As it currently stands there is no system whereby the DGCA or the Indian government can find out the antecedent of a person in the US,” he said of pilots who train abroad. Privacy Versus Security Lazar acknowledged that while sharing pilot data raises privacy concerns — “At this point, aviation security is far more important than privacy”. He said pilots already contend with fatigue, GPS spoofing and AI-related threats. “For every Hammami, there are 10 Smit Machchhars,” Lazar said, adding that most pilots are among the world’s best. “We are not here to victimise them, but we need to protect that pilot as well from another guy who could be a maniac.”
Under updated regulatory frameworks, all commercial airlines operating flights into Israel must migrate their data submission protocols to this agency. “Every regulator seems to have their own licensing norms. A licence is endorsed every time a pilot changes airline or country, he noted, which is why the link must run regulator to regulator. The Dubai regulator and flydubai should have caught the history, especially as both countries are in the Gulf. “Huge lapse on the part of the Dubai aviation organisation to have granted this guy a license… Israel follows APIS and has its own national system, called the National Center for Passenger Information Analysis. In international air travel, NCPIA refers to Israel’s border control and security authority. How Pilots Are Vetted Now
He recalled the use of Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) following the 9/11 terrorist attack, as a voluntary measure and became mandatory for flights to the US afterwards. Airlines sent passenger and crew data to American authorities up to 48 hours ahead, he said, and many people failed clearance.
He suggested it may have been because of what he called “brotherly camaraderie” in the industry. “They don’t want to destroy somebody’s career, allegedly, so they just let him move on,” he told NDTV. They are not centralising information dispersal,” Lazar said, calling for an alert, or “flash”, sent to regulators in other countries whenever a pilot is terminated for radicalisation. Huge lapse by Flydubai not to have gone deeper into his background,” he said, pointing out that he saw a lapse on the Israeli side too. Israel’s Role Israel’s Transport Ministry said it does not run intelligence checks on foreign pilots and has no staff abroad. Lazar told NDTV he partly disagreed.
It nearly crashed the flight before passengers and others rushed in and subdued the co-pilot. The aircraft landed safely at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia, and both pilots were treated in hospital.
The UAE, which is leading the investigation, called it a “terrorist attack”. The UAE says its investigation into motives and “related connections” is continuing.
