Flydubai - And So The World Changes Again.......

By Rob Russell

Who remembers the good old days of travelling? No visa, and if you needed one, you ambled down to the local embassy of the country you wanted to visit; they asked when you were leaving, checked your passport, stamped it, and off you go. No hassle at the airport, checking in, ambling through security and duty-free and then a peaceful and relaxing flight to your destination of choice.

That was until one fateful day in September 2001.

The world woke up to terrorists crashing aircraft into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and one going down in the middle of America. All changed after that, with a bang! Airports were redesigned overnight to cope with the new rules and regulations. Some did well, and some still haven't got it right!

The good old days of flying came to an end, in a flash and everything else with it too. Ramped up security at any airport, remember? You were now subject to a security check prior to checking in; the check-in agent wanted to see your passport, visa and your ID document. Everything had to be 100% correct. Spelling, names, etc all checked, and if you had any discrepancy, that was the end of your flight before it even started. Then more checks at the ramped-up security checkpoints, including undressing, taking everything out of what was left of your clothes, phones and laptops checked and it took half a day to get through security. And then more checks at the gate! It never ended! And that was prior to departure, at the airport.

Getting a visa became a whole new ball game. Gone were the “turn up at the embassy and speak nicely and say hello and when you were leaving their country”! Now, to get a visa requires copies of your whole life: your birth certificate and identity documents, qualifications, life savings, medical history and so it went on. Copies of your flight bookings, hotel bookings and exact dates of travel. It certainly is true that you are now a criminal and need to prove to the country you are going to that you are an innocent person just planning a visit. Woe betide if anything was incorrect, or even worse you had a criminal record. Sorry mate, you're not coming to visit us. People literally celebrated getting a visa!

Having gotten your visa, airline booking and finally checked in you eventually made it to the security checkpoint, only to discover your favourite perfume or anti-smelly was removed because it was deemed too dangerous in a bottle too big and not made out of plastic! No more taking your favourite tipple with you, or heaven forbid your designer nail file and clippers. Having had those taken away from you, you made it through the X-ray machine, a rather over-robust hand search, one or two kilograms lighter and finally a glimpse of the aircraft that was taking you on your holiday, or business trip.

Once on the aircraft, no more drinking your wine out of a glass, well, not in economy at least. That was deemed too dangerous, as you could break the glass and stab someone. But you could still do it in business and first class. Those are apparently good passengers who did not do naughty things, or so the airlines thought. Disposable cutlery for your overcooked and dead chicken or beef, or overheated scrambled egg! We can't have you stabbing the passenger next to you with your knife. But don't worry, the upper classes still got their Sterling silver cutlery and could do what they wanted to do with it.

But we had no option but to adapt and go along with all the changes. At least now, albeit after 20 years, you can take more than 2 drops of your deodorant with you; you can take your favourite shampoo in an IATA-approved plastic bottle, see-through and less than 200 ml. Some countries even let you take your nail file with you!

Passengers put up with all these inconveniences, all “in the interest of safe travel” and security. The biggest threat now is that little thing called a battery pack, to keep your two-year-old smartphone charged in flight, lest you want to send a selfie to your best friend of you eating your meal, with a plastic knife and drinking your chateaux de plonk out of a plastic glass!

But we managed; life carried on. We got through something called COVID, where the press fooled you into thinking that travelling on an aircraft with a HEPA air conditioning system, you would be very safe and would not get COVID! You had to wear a mask, but could remove it to drink and eat. Remember those silly days? We all thought that life had changed, air travel had changed again and this was the new norm, until one day, poof, COVID was no longer a life-threatening issue and you did not need a HEPA system or mask to travel!

People celebrated; they took to the air again, with their plastic knives, mugs and the world slowly went back to what it was, or the “new norm”, as the press wanted it to be known as.

Little did we know that one fateful day in 2026, a radical Islamic person was going to try and turn a Boeing 737 into a missile and crash it into downtown Tel Aviv, or so we are being led to believe. We have all been watching the news, reading about it and laughing at some of the rubbish social media experts have been telling us.

But life is about to change again. Not for you and me, as a passenger, thank heavens, but for those who sit in front of the cockpit door!

The world is slowly coming to grips with the horror of the situation on that fateful FlyDubai flight, from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Quite scary and it must have been horrific for those who were passengers on it. Thanks to the brave action of people on the flight - and we still don't know exactly who they were - the first officer, who tried to kill the Captain, was overpowered and a deadheading crew were able to take over flying the aircraft and land it.

The investigation is still very much ongoing, and there are still hundreds of questions that require answers, but one thing is for sure: pilot selection has sure taken on a new meaning. Not only in the Middle East, but worldwide.

We don't know if the pilot was a lone wolf, acting on his own, or whether he is part of a terrorist organisation and what exactly he was going to do. Some answers are coming out, but the full investigation is still weeks, if not months, away from being completed.

Gone are the days of sending in your CV on a Monday, interview on a Tuesday, medical on a Wednesday, contract mailed on a Thursday and three days to resign from your present job and get to your new one! No more friendly references at the bottom of your CV either now!

Pilot selection is going to take on a whole new meaning. Far more thorough, with more head shrinkers taking an active part in the interview, for starters. Airlines are now going to want to know if you have a criminal record; they're going to require a police clearance now, that's for sure. And in South Africa, that could take a good few weeks. It's going to make the process a lot longer, harder and more stressful. Airline management are going to insist on pilot selections taking on a whole new process, with emphasis on the applicant's past history outside their airline life and what their religious beliefs are too. It's coming, like it or not.

As to your medicals, no more just testing the eyes, hearing and blood pressure. They're going to involve you going to a head shrink to ensure you are not radicalised and still a good boy, or girl. Let's hope that the CAAs stay out of it, but I am not sure of that. They could make getting a yearly medical a lot harder and more complicated. It's already stressful in South Africa, with a nurse deciding if you are overweight, don't have a high BMI and so it goes on. Imagine how they are going to possibly influence the outcome of your medical?

Back to the FlyDubai incident, and the airline could also come in for some sanctions from either one or both of the UAE and Israeli authorities for allowing a pilot from a radical country to fly into Israeli airspace. It is known that the Israelis do not allow pilots to fly into their airspace if they come from some unapproved countries. Sure, these things happen and people can slip through the checks, but it's going to take a big ramp-up in many procedures from all airlines to ensure such radicalised people do not get into cockpits. That will, as was said earlier, require more thorough pilot selection, ongoing monitoring of an airline's pilots and also the airline's security departments checking on their personnel. It's a huge wake-up call for all airlines. The threat is now not only in the passenger seat, but also possibly in the cockpit.

Life has just got a lot harder to be a pilot and a sane one at that. And also for airlines' flight operations departments.

And don't forget the race to develop a pilotless aircraft has just moved into the faster lane. And don't kick back at it; it's going to happen, like it or not. Hell, Uber have driverless cars and people get into them, don't they? You have been warned!

And you still want to be a pilot?