India, Oct. 4 -- Israel's Transportation Ministry has said it does not conduct background checks on pilots flying into the country and cannot guarantee that those flights are "100 percent" safe, amid growing questions over whether the Israeli government could have prevented the near-disaster aboard flydubai Flight 1073 earlier this week.

"We are not an intelligence body that checks the intelligence background of foreigners," a representative of the division said in a statement, according to Israel daily Ynet. "We have no forces abroad. We have no staff that checks every person there."

According to Bloomberg, Omani co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami, who assaulted the commanding Indian captain on the flydubai flight enroute to Tel Aviv from Dubai...