Concerns Raised Over Potential New Terror Tactics Following Flydubai Incident

<p>The incident aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 has raised concerns regarding potential new tactics that the Iranian regime may employ to carry out acts of terror globally.</p><p>Miri Eisin, a former colonel in the Israel Defense Forces and current head of Reichman University’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, stated that the involvement of a radicalized pilot could indicate a shift in methods. Eisin noted that having a pilot as an attacker would provide guaranteed access to the cockpit, unlike previous hijackings where force was necessary.</p><p>“An individual doesn’t get the idea on his own to crash a plane full of people including himself. Somebody told him that if you do that you get your 72 virgins,” Eisin told The New York Post. “If you think back to past plane hijackings, including 9/11, the hijacker was never the pilot of the plane… This could be a new kind of suicide bomber.”</p><p>Eisin also mentioned that while the official investigation is ongoing, she has believed from the outset that Iran may have been involved in the Flydubai incident.</p><p>“This to me is very much something that could have come from Hezbollah or the IRGC Quds Force, this is the kind of things that they think of,” she said. “Just because someone’s a pilot doesn’t mean they can’t be radicalized; people from all walks of life could be radicalized. [Former Syrian dictator] Bashar al-Assad was a doctor, Josef Mengele was a doctor… And if you kill Israelis, the whole world applauds you.”</p><p>President Donald Trump has also suggested that Iran could be responsible for the near miss, although he did not provide further details.</p><p>Oded Ailam, a former deputy head of global operations for Mossad, commented on the implications of using trained and radicalized pilots for attacks similar to 9/11. “Recruiting and convincing a pilot to do something like that, it’s not the same as telling a 15-year-old to strap on a bomb and walk into a promenade and explode himself. This is a very sophisticated and long operation,” he said.</p><p>Ailam noted that it is more likely to see “lone wolf” style attacks from pilots radicalized by their surroundings. “He’s influenced by jihadists, by extremists in mosques, he’s influenced by prominent Iranians calling for death to Israel,” he stated. “Terror combined with mental disturbances in the pilot, when you combine it together the outcome is horrific. There are a lot of people who are being radicalized who are airline pilots.”</p><p>Ailam suggested that implementing a technological solution allowing crew members to access the cockpit during a similar attack could be an effective preventive measure.</p><p>An Israeli television report indicated that pilots from Iran, Syria, and Iraq, among other nations, have operated foreign airliners into and out of Israel in recent years. These pilots reportedly hold dual citizenship, likely possessing a second passport from a country that does not raise security concerns.</p>