ISRAEL: Ethiopian Airlines 737 Denied Entry After Crew Member Found Non-Compliant

TEL AVIV, Israel

• The Israeli Civil Aviation Authority turned away an inbound Ethiopian Airlines 737-800(F) on Monday, 12 October, after one of the flight crew was found to be Indonesian.
• As per newly defined security protocols enforced in the wake of the flydubai hijacking incident, Israel will not accept any aircraft piloted by crew from any one of 27 countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel. Indonesia is one of those nations.
• Flight trackers show ET3414, operated by 737-800(F) (MSN 29121 | ET-AVX), had just departed Addis Ababa at 0140L (2240Z -1) en-route to Tel Aviv when it was forced to turn around, orbit Addis Ababa, and dump fuel before landing. The flight subsequently re-departed at 0541L (0241Z) presumably with a compliant crew.
• Countries are only given a crew and passenger manifest once an aircraft has departed its origin airfield.
• Ethiopian Airlines did not respond to an insideaviation.news request for comment.
• Meanwhile, a meeting scheduled this week between UAE officials and Israeli Transport Ministry has been canceled.
• Initial Israeli Transport Ministry probe into the foiled flydubai attack was completed, yet many details remain missing.
• Two conflicting accounts emerged on the meeting cancellation involving Transport Minister Miri Regev.
• Consequence is that Emirati carriers cannot resume flights to Israel and Israeli carriers cannot resume flights to the UAE. Tel Aviv-Dubai route stays suspended.
• Israeli carriers have also begun background checks on pilots of wet-leased aircraft without waiting for final conclusions on the flydubai attempt.
• UAE Attorney General reported that the Omani co-pilot planned a suicide attack at Ben Gurion.
• The co-pilot underwent radicalisation while studying in Australia in 2017.
• The co-pilot had worked for several carriers before joining flydubai in January 2026 and met all professional and security requirements.
• Transport Ministry officials gave testimony to the National Unit for Fraud Investigations at Lahav 433 over conflict-of-interest concerns linked to foreign airline operations.
• Civil Service Commission stated it neither approved nor knew of private work by security department head Avri Cohen.

Sources:

• 13tv