Near-Catastrophe on Flight 1073 Exposes Gaping Hole in Dubai’s Aviation Security

The FlyDubai pilot who stabbed his captain and sent the plane diving toward the ground slipped through one of the world’s tightest aviation-security nets. The question is: How?The route connecting the United Arab Emirates and Israel is one of the world’s most sensitive. The Middle East has a long history of hijackings and other attacks on civilian airliners.To counter attacks, both countries have some of the world’s most advanced surveillance technologies and capable spy networks. On top of that, air regulations have been repeatedly tightened following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. and the Germanwings Flight 9525 intentional crash in the French Alps. And yet on Wednesday a pilot was able to conceal his intentions, gain access to a knife, and put a plane carrying around 170 people into a dive so steep it nearly tore it apart in midair.