Iran war, Netanyahu-MBZ meet, attempted hijack: The many threads in flydubai incident

The ramification of the flydubai scare is that air travel and security will become tedious. It could also be an ominous sign for more such lone wolf attacks.

West Asia was pulled back from the precipice of another dangerous chapter amid the Iran-Gulf war after Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, his crew and brave passengers not only saved a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv from crashing in the Saudi Arabian desert, but also prevented it from being used as a missile against Ben Gurion Airport by the allegedly radicalised Omani co-pilot.

The Indian pilot, who was injured in the incident, has earned praises for his cockpit heroics that saved over 180 lives. “The incident that occurred yesterday, Captain Smit of India demonstrated remarkable patience, presence of mind, and courage. Indeed, as the Prime Minister of Israel stated today, an Indian prevented a 9/11-type tragedy,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, referring to the US terror strikes that saw hijacked planes crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people. He was alluding to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's praise for Machchhar.

Tel Aviv, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh are all silent on the identity of the Omani pilot as a full-fledged investigation has been launched to unravel the state or jihadist group behind what could have been a dastardly incident. Even though Captain Machchchar had triggered the alert and Israeli jets had taken to the skies, it would have been very difficult for even the most hardened of fighter pilots to shoot down the innocent passengers in the jet in the skies over either Saudi Arabia or Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

While Netanyahu has hinted that Iran could be behind the attempted terror attack, the incident comes days after the Israeli leader met UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi to expand bilateral ties with emphasis on mutual security. This was the first overt meeting of the two leaders as there are reports that they met earlier in secret during the start of the Iran war.

The potentially horrendous attempted terror attack would have reignited the Iran war and pushed not only Israel but also the UAE to take action against actors behind the incident. Just like the Hamas terror attack on south Israel on October 7, 2023, came after the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) announcement and the possibility of Saudi Arabia joining the 2020 Abraham Accords, the flydubai incident would have blown the Israel-UAE bonhomie to smithereens.

The obvious ramification of this incident is that plane travel will become more tedious with both pilots and passengers harassed in the name of security, and passengers will try and avoid West Asian airlines till such time Iran and the US declare truce and return to the dialogue table.

While the real reason behind what the Omani co-pilot did will only come out after investigations, it is safe to assume that the attack was to teach both Israel and UAE a lesson. Conspiracy theorists will talk false flag operations on the eve of Israeli elections, but it is not very difficult to understand the mindset of those who want to avenge the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei at the hands of Israel and the US—be it state- or state proxies. West Asia and the US should watch out for more such lone wolf attacks in future.