By Allison Lampert, Tim Hepher, Steven Scheer and Federico Maccioni
Oct 7 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia has launched an air accident probe following last week’s cockpit stabbing on a flydubai jet, as experts examine any fallout for aviation safety alongside a separate UAE-led criminal investigation, three people close to the matter said.
Safety probes designed to keep flights safe are normal after accidents but are not mandatory when a deliberate act is involved, such as the suspected attempt by a co-pilot to bring down the Israel-bound flydubai jet on September 30.
Until now, it has remained unclear whether Saudi Arabia would go ahead with such a probe, which experts say could test a system of international cooperation designed to make recommendations for safety without attempting to assign blame.
The people close to the matter said Saudi Arabia had notified specialist aviation agencies abroad that it would carry out a safety investigation under international rules into flight FZ1073, which was in Saudi airspace when the co-pilot attacked the captain with an axe.
One of the people, however, said it was not clear whether Saudi investigators would publish their findings.
Saudi Arabia’s National Transport Safety Center, which has responsibility for accident investigations, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Saudi government and the country’s regulator also did not answer requests for comment.
The US National Transportation Safety Board, which would be closely involved in any probe because the Boeing 737 MAX jet that survived a steep plunge was made in the United States, confirmed it had assigned a representative to the probe.
Officials in the UAE did not respond to requests for comment. Under international rules known to the industry as Annex 13, the UAE would also automatically be involved because the jet is registered there and the airline is based in Dubai.
The UAE has already opened a separate criminal investigation into the incident, which its prosecutor general has called a “terrorist attack.”
Israel, whose citizens made up nearly all the 172 people on board, has offered to take part in any Saudi-led safety investigation but has not so far been invited to join, Ofer Vaknin, director of the Aircraft Safety Investigation Authority, told Reuters.
However, he added that Israel may not need to join, because it was not an operational or safety issue with the aircraft.
REDUCTION IN ACCIDENTS
Saudi Arabia and Israel have no diplomatic ties, though experts say the decades-old UN-backed system of cooperation on safety has demonstrated it can work across geopolitical lines.
The Annex 13 rulebook grants observer status to countries with significant fatalities or injuries, but does not describe what happens where all passengers escape injury as in this case.
By avoiding questions of blame and focusing solely on technical matters, air accident investigations are widely credited with sharply reducing accidents in recent decades.
They have generally stayed below the diplomatic radar, allowing specialists to cooperate regardless of diplomatic ties.
In 2020, despite heightened tensions following the shooting down of a Ukrainian jet by Iran, aviation officials from the US and Iran jointly took part in the playback of cockpit tapes at the offices of France’s BEA agency, participants said.
However, there has been growing friction in recent years over access to evidence between civil and judicial probes.
In 2015, France’s BEA agency went ahead with a civil safety probe after clashing with prosecutors over access to evidence following the pilot-suicide crash of a Germanwings jet.
Safety officials say that whereas prosecutors take the lead when a crime is suspected, even cases of deliberate action can yield lessons on topics like recruitment or cockpit safety.
(Reporting By Allison Lampert, Tim Hepher, Steven Scheer, Federico Maccioni, Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Joe Brock, Elaine Hardcastle and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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