The violent incident aboard a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv in Israel, has generated concerns about aviation security protocols, particularly the assumption that the flight crew constitute a trusted security layer.

The concerns followed the September 30, 2026 incident involving Flydubai Flight FZ1073, which was operating from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

The aircraft, carrying more than 170 passengers, was diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, after an altercation broke out in the flight deck between two pilots.

Israeli officials had said one of the two pilots stabbed the other and apparently attempted to crash the aircraft.

Commenting on the issue, the Chief Executive Palewater Advisory Group Africa. Alex Nwuba, said that the incident had challenged a long-standing assumption in aviation security that flight crew should automatically be regarded as a secure entity capable of taking custody of weapons surrendered by authorised armed passengers.

Nwuba explained that the incident demonstrated that the threat to an aircraft did not necessarily have to originate from outside the cockpit.

He also drew attention to provisions contained in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 17, which establishes international standards and recommended practices for aviation security and measures aimed at preventing unlawful interference with civil aviation.

He said: “The Flydubai incident has made me rethink an assumption we have long taken for granted in aviation security: that the flight crew are themselves a cleared security entity.

“ICAO Annex 17 distinguishes between an authorized armed passenger, the secure custody of weapons, and specially trained in-flight security officers. It also requires the pilot-in-command to be informed when armed persons are onboard.

“My concern is this: when an authorised military or police officer travelling as a passenger surrenders his weapon and that weapon is subsequently handed to the flight crew, are we unintentionally creating a new security vulnerability?”

Also, aviation security expert, John Ojikutu, queried the layers of security applied by the Israeli authorities to flights arriving from Arab countries.

Ojikutu explained that the incident had drawn attention to the security arrangements governing flights from Arab countries into Israel and called for a review of aviation security programmes for such operations.

He declared that security programmes for such flights should be reviewed immediately in view of the security environment in the region.

Ojikutu also linked the concern to the heightened tensions involving the United States and Iran, arguing that aviation security arrangements should take account of changing regional threats.

He said: “I am hearing it for the first time today that Arab nations aircraft fly freely to Israel. They need to reverse their Aviation Security Programmes for such flights immediately, not with the growing threats in the region between the US and Iran.”