By Kate Duffy | Updated on Oct 08, 2026 at 12:25 PM
European airlines and regulators can only do so much to deter cockpit attacks like the one during a recent FlyDubai flight, and the aviation industry must accept there’s “no absolute safety and security” even with stringent vetting of pilots.
Ryanair Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary said his airline does extensive reference checks on job candidates, but “no system is perfect.”
“It is impossible to eliminate all of these risks,” he said Thursday at a meeting organized by the Airlines for Europe lobby group in Brussels.
O’Leary also would be “very reluctant” to implement blacklists for pilots and crew members.
“If you have somebody who is a mad person in a cockpit, it’s very difficult to legislate for it,” O’Leary said.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG CEO Carsten Spohr said there’s a delicate balance between protecting passengers and ensuring the privacy of employees. The airline group experienced a pilot murder-suicide in 2015 when a plane operated by subsidiary Germanwings was deliberately crashed in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
“We have to face the fact that there is no absolute safety and security in this industry,” Spohr said. “This is a very difficult area for regulators.”
The number of dangerous situations involving pilots has declined over time, so the aviation industry is headed in the right direction, IAG SA CEO Luis Gallego said.
“After this incident, in the same way we did in the past, we are going to work closely with the authorities to try to see if there is a way to continue to improve this,” he said.
IAG is the parent company of British Airways.
Officials in the Middle East are investigating the circumstances surrounding the Sept. 30 FlyDubai flight that nearly ended in catastrophe when a co-pilot attacked his captain with an ax and tried to crash the plane.
Israel identified Hamam al-Hammami as the pilot who attempted to hijack the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The Boeing Co. 737 Max dropped more than 14,000 feet in 30 seconds, data showed, before passengers and crew rushed in to subdue him.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the attacker was from Oman and underwent radical Islamist indoctrination . The United Arab Emirates’ federal prosecutor subsequently said the co-pilot attempted to carry out a “terrorist operation,” according to state-run news agency WAM.
Other pilots on board landed the aircraft in Saudi Arabia. The Indian commander, Smit Machchhar, is recovering from severe stab wounds.