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A Los Angeles-based United Airlines pilot has sparked security fears for openly expressing sympathies for Iran and an allied terrorist organization.
Israel’s Transportation Ministry notified United Airlines on Wednesday that pilot Sina Amjadian is barred from entry, the Jerusalem Post reported, for sharing controversial posts on his social media.
Amjadian’s bio on Instagram describes himself as “Persian made” and based out of Los Angeles International Airport. It has a heart icon next to IKA, the abbreviation for Tehran’s international airport.
He shared images on social media featuring Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, alongside Islamic Republic flags, while criticizing Israeli military strikes in Iran.
Two posts specifically seemed to have struck a nerve with Israel. In one video, he reportedly kissed and saluted the Iranian regime’s emblem.
In a second piece of content, he allegedly expresses support for the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US.
“The pilot’s details were forwarded to the relevant aviation security authority […] to ensure that he would not be permitted to enter Israel as a member of an aircraft crew,” an Israeli Transport Ministry spokesperson said to The Travel.
Information was forwarded to Israeli intelligence and defense agencies, which reviewed the findings and then made the recommendation to bar him from entry.
The California Post reached out to both United Airlines and Amjadian for comment.
The airline told the California Post that Amjadian is not currently flying for the company and has been on leave since 2024.
It’s not immediately clear if he is back in the cockpit, though he was still posting flight videos in recent days on his Instagram and his LinkedIn shows him still with United since November 2022.
Before United, he was a pilot with flydubai, and according to the Jerusalem Post, he is likely currently staying in Dubai.
It was also determined that Amjadian does not operate international routes but mainly flies domestic within the US and Canada.
Israel’s action comes in light of the recent attempted terrorist attack by a co-pilot on a flydubai plane bound for Israel.
The co-pilot started working for flydubai just months before he allegedly stabbed the main pilot in a feared terrorist hijacking on a September flight to Tel Aviv, leaving it plunging 18,000 feet.
Since then, the country has been stepping up its scrutiny. United Airlines released an internal memo to employees warning that crew members of 29 nationalities, such as from countries like Oman and Iraq, are prohibited from working on all routes to Israel.