An EL AL Israel Airways flight needed to divert in the present day on account of a medical emergency, and sadly that is proving to be problematic…
EL AL 737 diverts to Antalya on account of medical emergency
This incident is going on proper now (on Sunday, June 30, 2024), and entails EL AL flight LY5102 from Warsaw, Poland (WAW), to Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV). The flight is operated by a 25-year-old Boeing 737-800 with the license plate 4X-EKA.
The jet departed Warsaw at 11:22AM this morning, and was imagined to make the 1,558-mile flight to Tel Aviv. Nonetheless, there ended up being a medical emergency onboard, so the flight needed to divert. The choice was made to land in Antalya, Türkiye (AYT), the place the jet touched down round 2.5 hours after its preliminary departure.
In these sorts of conditions, it’s customary for the passenger with the medical must be offloaded, for the airplane to refueled, and to then proceed to the supposed vacation spot.
Sadly that’s not how this case performed out, although. Relations between Israel and Türkiye haven’t been good because the October 7 assaults, and there haven’t been nonstop flights between the international locations since then.
In consequence, authorities reportedly refused to refuel the jet, resulting in a difficult scenario that lasted for 3 hours. Passengers additionally weren’t allowed to get off the airplane, which is maybe much less stunning.
EL AL 737 now flying to Rhodes to refuel
As of the time of this put up, the EL AL Boeing 737 is now departing Antalya round three hours after it initially landed. In line with flight monitoring software program, the plane is now headed to Rhodes, Greece (RHO), which is round 155 miles away.
Presumably it’s because the airplane was unable to refuel in Antalya, and the plane didn’t have sufficient gas to fly the 410 miles to Tel Aviv, whereas nonetheless having ample reserves.
You’d actually hope that an airport could be keen to assist an airline in a scenario the place there’s a medical emergency. Nonetheless, Türkiye has been a vocal critic of Israel because the begin of the struggle, and has additionally stopped all imports and exports with the nation.
So sadly I can’t say that I’m completely shocked by the actions of authorities. Frankly, I’m sort of shocked that EL AL made the choice to divert to Antalya, since on the level that the jet began its diversion, it may have in all probability been in Rhodes simply a number of minutes later.
After all in medical emergencies you wish to prioritize getting on the bottom as shortly as attainable, however you additionally wish to steadiness that with the dangers, and avoiding conditions like this.
Backside line
An EL AL Boeing 737 flying from Warsaw to Tel Aviv had a medical emergency, inflicting the pilots to divert the airplane to Antalya. Türkiye isn’t any alley of Israel, so the airport authorities reportedly refused to refuel the plane.
The standoff lasted for a couple of hours, at which level the choice was made to as a substitute fly to close by Rhodes, and refuel there, previous to returning to Tel Aviv. I hope the particular person with the medical emergency doesn’t have something too severe, and that the remainder of this journey goes easily.
Are you shocked that the EL AL airplane diverted to Türkiye, and/or that authorities wouldn’t refuel the airplane?
