look news india
The recent horrific and violent incident that took place inside the cockpit of ‘Flydubai’ flight FZ1073 going from Dubai to Tel Aviv has shocked aviation departments around the world. After this sensational incident, the murmur of reviewing the aviation security system at a high level has intensified in India too. According to sources, under this possible review, very important aspects like existing SOPs related to air safety, psychological test of pilots (psychometric test) and deployment of ‘Sky Marshal’ on sensitive international routes can be re-examined. Although no official announcement has been made in this regard yet by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA or BCAS in India, it has become a major debate issue among aviation security experts.
During this incident that happened on September 30, there was a sudden violent clash between the two pilots inside the cockpit of the flydubai flight going from Dubai to Tel Aviv. According to media reports, the co-pilot attacked Indian Captain Smit Mosquito with a knife, after which the aircraft suddenly started losing altitude rapidly and broadcast emergency signals (Squawk 7700 and 7500), indicating hijack or unlawful interference. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also later confirmed that the co-pilot was allegedly trying to crash the plane after the attack, but despite being injured, the intelligence of Captain Smit Mosquito and the crew and passengers averted a major accident and the plane landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia.
After this horrific incident came to light, the issue of mental health assessment of airline crew and especially pilots has come to the fore across the world. In India too, under the mental health guidelines of DGCA, there is already a system in place to pay attention to the mental health of flight crew and air traffic controllers. Pre-employment psychological assessment was recommended in the medical circular issued by DGCA in the year 2023, which includes assessment of various aspects related to cognitive ability, decision making ability and personality of pilots.
However, experts believe that regular and uniform psychometric test of every pilot is not mandatory, but after incidents like Flydubai, the question has definitely arisen before the security agencies whether the existing rules and procedures need to be made more stringent or not.
The second most important point of this entire review is related to the deployment of ‘Sky Marshal’. India already has a robust system in place to deploy sky marshals on sensitive flights to deal with hijacking or any serious security threat. This security is decided under the guidelines of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and operational procedures related to NGS.
After this incident of flydubai, it is being assessed in which sensitive international routes and circumstances in future the presence of additional security forces or sky marshals should be made mandatory. However, details of Sky Marshal deployment are not made public due to security and privacy reasons.
This entire incident has given a new lesson in the history of aviation security that if the threat inside an aircraft arises not from external enemies, but from the person sitting inside the cockpit, then how the security system will react. Aviation security in India operates at multiple levels, including internal processes of airlines, airport security, intelligence agencies and regulatory bodies.
Currently, an international investigation into the flydubai incident is underway, and based on its findings, countries around the world, including India, will consider changes in their policies. The main focus of the Indian security agencies is to ensure that if any such unusual or emergency situation arises in future, the response time between the cockpit, crew members, passengers and the security agencies on the ground is minimal and there is no security lapse.