Alert after takeoff: Israel demands plane turn back
An Ethiopian Airlines cargo plane was forced to turn back after departing from Addis Ababa when it was discovered that one of its pilots was an Indonesian citizen—a country with which Israel has no diplomatic relations. The aircraft dumped fuel over the sea and returned to the Ethiopian capital. The incident comes amid a recent attempted hijacking of a flydubai flight by a co-pilot from Oman and has exposed systemic gaps in the vetting of foreign flight crews.
Israeli authorities demanded that an Ethiopian Airlines cargo plane turn back shortly after its departure from Addis Ababa. The reason was the discovery among the pilots of an Indonesian citizen—a state with which Israel has no diplomatic relations, which automatically bars its citizens from entering Israeli airspace. The aircraft had to dump fuel over the sea and return to the Ethiopian capital, where the Indonesian pilot was replaced by another crew member authorized to land at Ben Gurion Airport. The incident comes amid a recent attempted hijacking of a passenger plane by a co-pilot from Oman—another country without diplomatic ties with Israel. Following this case, Israel began reviewing procedures for vetting foreign crews. The article notes that the Ministry of Transport, formally responsible for the security of foreign flights, claims it lacks intelligence tools to screen passengers and crew. It emerged that the ministry had not used its right to access the crew database for three years, despite repeated requests from the Tax Authority. Moreover, the database technically cannot provide citizenship data 48 hours before departure, as required by law. As early as May 2024, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman published a report citing serious deficiencies in the security system for international air travel.