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New official revelations underscore that the co-pilot’s grievous assault on the captain, which nearly brought down Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, could have been prevented through proper background screening. Oman had barred the co-pilot from flying over concerns that he was a radical Islamist, yet Flydubai hired him. During the flight, he used a “crash ax” — a 14- to 15-inch emergency tool with a sharp blade capable of cutting through an aircraft’s interior aluminum skin and fiberglass — to attack the captain and seek to seize control of the plane. Stored inside the cockpit, the crash ax is intended for use by flight crews during in-flight emergencies or post-crash evacuations, when it can be used to cut, pry open or breach interior structures. The captain survived an assault that could easily have ended in catastrophe.