A co-pilot dismissed from Oman's national airline last year over concerns about his extremist views held a valid license and an airside pass when he attempted to hijack a Flydubai flight to Israel last week — a sequence aviation security experts say exposes the absence of any international standard for crew background checks.

The suspect, named as co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami, was removed from Oman Air following concerns about his views, sources told CNN. Both the United Arab Emirates and Israel enforce strict aviation security regimes, yet al-Hammami flew for Flydubai regardless. Flydubai said it could not comment while the incident remains under investigation.

The captain's quick action prevented the attempt from becoming a disaster. The suspect did not smuggle a weapon aboard: the UAE confirmed on Saturday that he used the cockpit's crash ax — standard emergency equipment on most passenger aircraft.

What does the incident reveal about vetting failures?

Post-9/11 security architecture was built to stop threats entering the flight deck from the cabin, not threats already sitting in it.

"A lot of the post 9/11 security measures that were adopted were meant to prevent an external threat — loading bombs or things onto an aircraft, preventing a threat from amongst the passenger base from getting access to cockpits," said CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas. "It wasn't really designed with the theory that a pilot would do something like that."

There is no international standard for background checks. Pilot licenses and security passes are handled at national level, with rules varying by country. Every flight crew member requires an "airside" pass, which typically demands police and background checks — but the process rests on each country's regulations, according to aviation expert Alastair Rosenschein, a UK pilot for four decades.

"There's not really anything cast in stone as to how people are vetted — and there should be," Rosenschein said, asking pointedly: "Why did the Omanis not suspend his pilot's license?"

Aviation expert and British pilot Gideon Ewers noted the deeper structural flaw: a pilot's license is a technical qualification proving someone can fly a plane. It carries no record of prior employment issues or infractions.

How did he pass airline screening?

Hiring practices vary airline by airline, but most involve psychological evaluation, simulator checks and references from previous employers, Rosenschein said. It remains unclear how al-Hammami cleared referencing if he had been dismissed from Oman Air over extremism concerns.

"The hiring process at company 'A' can be quite different from the process at company 'B,' even though it's a similar role," Ewers said. "Any pilot who's involved in the recruitment will say their primary question is asking themselves, 'Would I want to sit in a cockpit with this guy for 12 hours?'"

Once hired, the main detection mechanism is internal reporting. If someone "started drinking heavily on night stops, they should be reported by their colleagues," Rosenschein said. He argued this incident and prior pilot suicide-murders — notably the 2015 Germanwings crash — show the industry needs information sharing between airlines and states, social media checks, random substance testing and regular psychological exams. None of that is standard across the industry.

"I think that we have to move to a far more serious regulation in the industry because so many lives are at stake in an aircraft," Rosenschein said, while noting flying today remains far safer than when he began piloting in the 1970s.

The International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN agency that coordinates aviation standards, said its standards are "under continuous review by ICAO and are enhanced as ICAO identifies emerging priorities and new best practices."

What did Israel check — and what did it miss?

The Israeli Ministry of Transport said its procedures do not include checking the names of flight crew members, though those names are submitted to the Israel Tax Authority for use if security services request them. The ministry relies on foreign carriers' commitments to international regulations and signed declarations that crews have been vetted.

The ministry added that crew members need a travel visa to enter Israel, and an Omani passport should have been flagged at check-in. But it conceded its "procedures do not address the threat from a pilot." One Israeli official told CNN it remains unclear how the Omani pilot obtained clearance to fly to Israel, given Oman and Israel have no formal diplomatic relations. Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, referred questions to the transport ministry, which it said is "responsible for all security matters concerning foreign airlines."

On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the head of the National Security Council to carry out a "thorough examination" of all aspects of foreign civil aviation security into Israel.

Should the crash ax stay on the flight deck?

The weapon itself raises its own regulatory question. The crash ax exists to break out of a damaged aircraft or open panels to reach a fire.

"You have a weapon on the flight deck. Should that remain there? I don't think it should," Rosenschein said, noting the ax also poses a risk when the cockpit door opens mid-flight, as happens during bathroom breaks.

Cockpit doors lock from inside, and most aircraft carry a panel switch that can open them. It remains unclear whether that is how the injured Indian pilot opened the door to let passengers intervene. Emergency entry codes protect against crew incapacitation — a heart attack, a stroke — but offer no defense against a pilot-initiated attack.

What happens next?

The UAE and Israel are both investigating. Saudi Arabia, where the flight diverted for its emergency landing and which has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel, will conduct its own inquiry.

Marco Chan, senior lecturer in aviation operations at London's Kingston University, said investigators will likely begin with the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, then examine the attacker's medical and training history and interview crew, passengers and the off-duty pilots who landed the aircraft safely.

Netanyahu's ordered review and the three parallel investigations are likely to force a reckoning with a vetting system that, on the evidence of this case, stopped asking questions at the nationality line.