Flight Forced To U-Turn Over Israel’s Strict New Pilot Rules

Louis is a military historian and the staff writer for History of War magazine, a leading military history monthly. He also has an interest in private and commercial aviation.

On October 12, an Ethiopian Airlines cargo Boeing 737 took off on a flight from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport (ADD) to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport (TLV). After a short flight, it returned to Addis Ababa because the jet had an Indonesian pilot onboard.

This incident occurred because of a rule change initiated by Israel after a flydubai 737 pilot attempted to hijack an aircraft bound for Tel Aviv. Now, no pilot from a country that has no diplomatic relations with Israel is allowed to fly to the country. Indonesia is among the 23 nations and one partially recognized state that takes this diplomatic position.

How The Incident Transpired

The Ethiopian Airlines cargo 737 took off from ADD at 1:40 AM local time. Bound for TLV, it had the flight number ET3414. According to The Times of Israel, Channel 13 has reported that a list of crew members aboard was not given to Israel until the jet was already en route. It remains unclear what caused this to occur, and whether it was a mistake. The jet turned around after 30 minutes of flight towards Israel. The jet then circled near Addis Ababa to dump fuel before returning to ADD. The jet landed safely at 3:22 AM after one hour and 42 minutes of flight time.

The scheduled flight was not completely stopped from flying to Israel. Instead, Ethiopian Airlines arranged for a crew change. The 737 then took off again at 5:41 AM and landed in TLV at 9:15 AM. The total flight time was three hours and 34 minutes.

Simple Flying has contacted both Ethiopian Airlines and Israel's Ministry of Transport and Road Safety for comment.

Pilots From Nations Who Don't Recognize Israel Are Now Banned

After the flydubaiattempted attack on TLV, Israel's Transportation Ministry decided not to allow aircraft with any crew members from nations that don't recognize Israel to fly to the country. This also applies to airlines from such nations. Ethiopia is not one of these countries, meaning that the flight could be scheduled, but Indonesia (the pilot's nationality) is included.

The table below shows the 23 states (and one partially recognized state) that don't recognize Israel, displayed in alphabetical order, whose pilots will no longer be allowed to fly to the country:

Compliance with the restrictions could cause issues for airlines in nations that have strong anti-discrimination rules. For example, The Middle East Eye has reported that Air France has agreed to enforce the ban and informed crew of the relevant nationalities that they will be taken off flights to Israel. The news outlet says that this decision has put the airline at risk of a legal challenge within the country.

Indonesia's Relations With Israel

Indonesia became independent of the Dutch Empire in December 1949. Israel recognized the state, but this was not reciprocated by Indonesia. There was briefly talk of Indonesia opening a consulate in Ramallah in 2012, but this never came to fruition.

The lack of diplomatic relations does not mean that the two countries have never made agreements. An example is the Indonesian Air Force's purchase of 30 Douglas A-4 Skyhawks (pictured) in the early 1980s.

However, ties like this now seem far off. The two nations' relations have soured since the 2023 Gaza War. A particular flashpoint came in the winter of 2023, when the IsraelDefense Force besieged and occupied the Indonesia Hospital in Gaza. The IDF alleged that the hospital was being used by Hamas. The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, condemned the act during a visit to China.