CNN has confirmed the Wall Street Journal report I mentioned above:
Thanks. That was precisely my first thought: Yaniv must have known to pull back gently yet firmly… and to know when to start leveling off.
Luckily, his touch was gentle, not too abrupt or exaggerated — more Yana, less Eldar.
I know American companies are reluctant to discuss former employees because they are afraid of being sued but does that apply to Middle Eastern companies?
At a minimum I would guess that FlyDubai has made it’s last flight into Israel. And probably a few other countries as well. If I were investing, FlyDubai would NOT be on my list of stocks to watch.
I’d venture the guess that airlines would DEFINITELY speak out (when specifically asked) to other airlines about safety-related-issues of FLYING crew.
Maybe not all the gory details, but “Pilot Mr.XYZ was terminated over safety concerns/related issues in june 2018” (or somesuch).
They are government-owned and, up until now, have been quite profitable. I’d expect the UAE to spend any amount to keep them solvent through this business crisis.
My first thought was also that service to Tel Aviv would never resume, but it’s a bidirectional service (both UAE and Israel carriers). Adding this service was a tangible example of the Abraham Accords (normalization between Israel, UAE, etc.).
I wonder if this service is symbolic enough to overcome the attack? Maybe, since the passengers and crew survived.
Or incredibly desperate for pilots.
It looks like the attempted hijacker might be a trifle misogynistic. Among other things.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10/03/flydubai-hijackers-hateful-rants-while-at-uk-university/
Sounds like a real prize.
Not really.
In the USA, there was in fact a real problem with crappy pilots being fired for bad piloting (not hijacking) and getting a job down the street where the new company would get no info from the old company about any problems. Normal HR considerations of worrying about being sued by the pilot for defamation, etc., led to “Joe Pilot worked here from [date] to [date]” was all that most companies would commit to.
Back around 1995 Congress passed a law that makes the FAA a central clearing house for training records and QA records of professional pilots. Airlines large and small are now required to deliver the basics of your training, testing, and checking records to FAA for eternal safekeeping. And carriers are required to consult the FAA’s records about everyone they are considering hiring. And are entitled to use what they find as part of their hiring decisions without liability to either carrier.
And Congress explicitly prohibited any sense of airline liability to the pilot for the info entered into the FAA’s records. As long as it’s factual. There is a dispute & error correction appeal process. But it’s a pretty rigorous hurdle for the pilot trying to hide something unpleasant.
Now why the law applies only to pilots and not every worker in every industry is another matter.
I have no idea to what extent something similar may exist in any other country. Nor how that might work between countries.
Closer to this situation, cooperation between the security and police and intel services of different countries is notoriously shitty. In the absence of specific treaties and ongoing working arrangements, e.g. Interpol, the general rule is don’t even acknowledge receipt of any inquiry.
how - under this regime - would the system “shed” an objectively in-apt pilot/officer?
Reminds me a bit (stretching it) of pedophile-priests being passed on to other locations (while keeping pedophiling there).
[insert a “´passing the bomb” cartoon]
I remember some cases of doctors or nurses who were incompetent or actually killing patients but were allowed to move from hospital to hospital without previous employers notifying the new ones.
Which regime?
Under the pre-1995 regime when airlines wouldn’t talk to each other, there was no formal way. Pretty soon Bob the lousy pilot would have a resume littered with short stints at increasingly low-rent companies. Hiring folks learned to read between the lines: He was either a bad aviator or a bad employee. Then again, there are some companies at the bottom of the food chain that will happily hire the incompetent because they work cheap. They’re rolling the dice this guy won’t create headlines. Often they win that gamble.
Under the current post-1995 regime, when Airline A fires Bob for being inept, the FAA is notified of that. While Airline B is reviewing Bob’s job application they pull his FAA dossier. And read “Airline A fired Bob for being inept on [date].” What they do with that info is up to them. See above about bottom of the food chain.
Again all this is US-specific conversation only tangentially related to a radicalized Omani security threat working for a Dubai company flying to Israel.
Petter Hörnfeldt (Mentour Pilot) posted a short today with an observation from the videos that the cabin emergency lighting went on during the event. He isn’t one to casually speculate on things like this, but he said those lights coming on might have been due to both engines being shut down during the altercation. Pretty wild if true.
I wish the “sharing information law” applied to the flight disrupters, door opening attempters, drunkards abusing passengers and staff. They might get banned on the airline in question but should go on a no-fly list across the board. I’m also pissed that prosecution seems rare and slow.
Continuing the hijack 
Yep. The (US again) unions are pushing continuously for this, and have been since about 2002, but with greatly increased fervor since the post-COVID stupidity has settled upon the customer base. With the airline management association (Airlines for America) discreetly following suit.
Congress continues to ignore this. They seem to have more important things to do nothing about.
Here’s a new wrinkle, at least to me:
Machchhar told Netanyahu the whole thing happened suddenly after the co-pilot requested to pray, which he said is normal during flights, and then a few minutes later he felt a blow to his head.
Normal for the pilots to pray during the flight? I’ve never heard of that and would find it extremely weird if a colleague suggested it. But in other parts of the world, maybe? Anyone know more about this?
I don’t see why not - several religions require prayers at certain times every day. It shouldn’t be a problem if the pilot doesn’t have any pressing duties and someone else is at the helm.
Devout Muslims pray five times a day and many flights last longer than a fifth of the day, so I can’t imagine that this is an uncommon situation.
The statement made me pause because AFAIK the mandatory prayers of Islam prescribe posture and orientation. But presumably the legal schools of Islam make various accomodations to pilots.
I recently flew on Turkish Airlines and was intrigued to see that the board information system supplied prayer times and direction to Mecca - I wonder how people clamped into the vise of an economy class seat could make use of that at all.