Iran May Be Developing New Terror Tactic Using Radicalized Pilots, Former IDF Colonel Warns

A former Israeli intelligence official has raised concerns that Iran may be cultivating a new and terrifying terrorist strategy: radicalizing airline pilots to carry out attacks similar to those on September 11, 2001. Miri Eisin, a former IDF colonel and veteran intelligence officer, suggested that the recent hijacking of a FlyDubai flight carrying Israeli passengers could be an early indicator of this potential tactic.

"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 stated in an interview. She noted that in past hijackings, including 9/11, the perpetrator was not the pilot. "This could be a new kind of suicide bomber," she added.

Eisin expressed suspicion regarding Iran's potential involvement in the FlyDubai incident, while acknowledging that direct evidence is pending and the investigation is ongoing. The pilot, identified by The Wall Street Journal as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, had reportedly been previously banned from flying by Oman due to suspicions of radicalization. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also commented that the attacker had undergone "Islamic radicalization."

Eisin suggested that groups like Hezbollah or Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force could be behind such a sophisticated operation. She theorized that if Iran is responsible, it might be attempting to introduce a new form of suicide bomber by embedding radicalized pilots within airlines, capable of launching an attack at any time.

"Just because someone’s a pilot doesn’t mean they can’t be radicalized, people from all walks of life could be radicalized," Eisin remarked, drawing parallels to historical figures with seemingly unrelated professions who became perpetrators of atrocities. "And if you kill Israelis, the whole world applauds you."

Oded Ailam, a former deputy head of global operations for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, commented that recruiting a pilot for such an act would require a more complex and prolonged process than inciting a young suicide bomber. "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.

Ailam, now a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, proposed that Iran might achieve pilot radicalization passively, through extensive anti-Israel propaganda online and other platforms, rather than direct recruitment. "The lone wolf is influenced by the pack of wolves around him, he’s influenced by jihadists, by extremists in mosques, he’s influenced by prominent Iranians calling for death to Israel," he explained.

Ailam warned that the threat of lone wolf extremists could pose a greater danger to air travel than organized cells, which are more susceptible to identification and disruption. He noted the potential for a horrific outcome when terror ideologies combine with mental disturbances in a pilot. "There are a lot of people who are being radicalized who are airline pilots," he said.

Following the FlyDubai incident, Ailam anticipates that governments will re-evaluate security measures for air travel. He suggested that airlines might need to implement technological solutions allowing crew members to access the cockpit in the event of a similar attack, as screening every pilot is deemed impractical. "It’s impossible to screen every pilot, the answer will have to be technological," he concluded.