Oman had grounded flydubai co-pilot over radicalisation fears, WSJ reports

The co-pilot accused of attacking his captain and trying to bring down a flydubai airliner carrying Israelis this week had previously been barred from flying by his home country, Oman, over fears that he had been radicalised. The Wall Street Journal reported the ban, citing people familiar with the matter, and the claim was carried by several Israeli outlets on Friday evening, including The Times of Israel, which noted that the man went on to fly flydubai's service between Dubai and Tel Aviv despite the Omani restriction.

According to that report, on Wednesday the co-pilot stabbed the pilot and, by the account of witnesses, attempted to crash the aircraft in what was described as an attempted terror attack. Israeli commercial broadcaster Channel 12 aired footage of the man after he had been overpowered and tied up. N12, the news arm of Channel 12, summarised the Journal's account as saying Oman had stopped him from continuing to fly over concern that he had taken on extreme ideological views, yet he was still cleared to work for flydubai and to operate flights to Israel.

Who the airline and the countries involved are

Flydubai is an airline based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and runs scheduled flights to Tel Aviv. The co-pilot is an Omani national. Oman is a sultanate on the Arabian Peninsula whose government sits in Muscat. The reports describe a sequence in which the man was restricted in Oman and later moved to the Emirates, where he was employed by flydubai.

The central question raised by the Journal's reporting is whether the Omani concerns ever reached the people who later hired and rostered him. The Times of Israel said the Journal was unable to establish whether Muscat had passed its concerns on to other governments or to airlines. Both flydubai and the Omani government did not answer the newspaper's requests for comment.

Competing accounts of his radicalisation

The reports do not agree on what form his radicalisation took, and the Journal itself could not pin it down. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the man had "underwent Islamist radical indoctrination," according to The Times of Israel. An earlier Channel 12 report said investigators had concluded he had been drawn into al-Qaeda ideology.

A separate account came from the Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya, as relayed by N12. That report said the co-pilot absorbed extremist ideas during an earlier period he spent in Syria, that he left Oman because he had been barred from flying there before relocating to the Emirates, and that he was said to have been outside the sultanate for most of the time, particularly in Syria. The Al Arabiya account was attributed to that outlet alone and was presented as a claim.

Ynet, the website of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, described the Omani assessment in terms of "Islamic radicalisation" and stressed that he nonetheless continued to fly what it called a sensitive route to Israel. Its alert service phrased the Omani concern as extreme views.

Did he act alone?

The sources also point to a gap between political and security assessments. Ynet reported that Israel's security establishment believes the co-pilot acted alone and on his own initiative. Ynet set this against remarks by Netanyahu, which it said hinted at direction or involvement by hostile parties. The reports do not name any such party, and no organisation has been publicly identified as having directed the attack.

How outlets are describing the man

Israeli outlets have used different terms. The Times of Israel referred to him as a terrorist and said he allegedly tried to crash the plane. The Jerusalem Post called him a hijacker in its headline. N12 used a term combining pilot and terrorist. The accounts of what happened in the cockpit rest in part on witnesses, as The Times of Israel noted.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports gives the co-pilot's name, his age, or when Oman imposed the ban and on what evidence. They do not say whether the restriction was a formal licensing action or an informal measure, or whether it applied beyond Omani carriers. The Journal could not determine whether Oman informed the Emirates or flydubai, and neither the airline nor the Omani government has commented publicly. The reports do not describe flydubai's vetting process or whether any Emirati authority was aware of the concerns. The condition of the injured pilot and the passengers, the number of people on board, and the current status of the co-pilot and any investigation are not addressed in this material. The Syria connection rests on a single report by Al Arabiya, and the al-Qaeda link on a single Channel 12 report; neither has been confirmed by the Journal.