Turkish airport workers reportedly refused to refuel an El Al Israel Airlines flight that had to make an emergency diversion to Antalya due to a medical emergency in an incident that has caused furore in Israel.
El Al flight LY5102 was flying from the Polish capital, Warsaw, to Tel Aviv on Sunday morning when a passenger was taken seriously ill as the Boeing 737 was flying over Turkey.
The situation was so serious that the pilots decided to divert the plane to Antalya so that the passenger could be rushed to the hospital. However, once on the ground, the plane quickly became embroiled in a diplomatic row.
In order to safely reach Tel Aviv, the aircraft needed to take on more fuel, but local airport workers reportedly refused to refuel the aircraft in contravention of widely accepted aviation principles.
Rather than waiting to sort out the issue through diplomatic channels, the pilots decided to leave Antalya with the fuel they had left and then fly to the Greek island of Rhodes, where they were able to take on more fuel before eventually flying on to Tel Aviv.
According to one Turkish diplomatic source cited by the Times of Israel, Turkey didn’t refuse to refuel the aircraft; rather, the Captain decided to depart before all the necessary red tape had been cut through to get the El Al jet refuelled.
Israeli officials haven’t completely dismissed that explanation but said a decision had to be made quickly because the plane was burning fuel on the ground, powering the onboard airconditioning and other systems.
Diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey have been tense ever since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a ground invasion of Gaza. Following the onset of the war, direct flights between Israel and Turkey were grounded, and in May, all trade between the two countries was suspended.
“Diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey have been tense ever since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a ground invasion of Gaza.”
Important missing context here is that the ground invasion of Gaza followed a massacre in which terrorists crossed the Israeli border by murdering border guards, then raped and murdered kids at a dance party and invaded farming communities and raped and murdered those residents, and kidnapped the survivors back to Gaza – many of whom are still held today. Netanyahu didn’t order a ground invasion in a vacuum.
And to think how close Turkey got to being admitted into the EU when it can’t honor simple Aviation Treaties regarding the treatment of civilian aircraft performing an emergency landing.