A Lufthansa Airlines flight from Munich to Tel Aviv landed in Larnaca, Cyprus, on Thursday morning, before turning around and returning to Germany, after the crew refused to fly to Israel amid spiraling tensions with Iran.
The German airline announced on Wednesday that it had canceled two nighttime flights to Israel from Frankfurt and Munich on Monday amid heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
According to Channel 12, Lufthansa initially informed passengers that the plane would land in Cyprus for “technical reasons” and then it would be decided whether it would continue to Tel Aviv.
But after some time on the ground, it was announced that the plane would return to Germany. Passengers were advised not to disembark, then told they could disembark in Cyprus if they wished but their luggage would remain on the plane and be taken back to Germany. The TV report said some 20 passengers disembarked.
Passengers later told Channel 12 that airline staff lied to them, including by telling them that they were unable to land in Israel amid the threat of an Iranian attack and that Israel had closed its airspace.
The TV channel played audio from the plane of an announcement in which a member of the crew says: “There will be no flights to Tel Aviv tonight… in everyone’s best interest … [we will] go back to Munich with everyone on board.” Later he is heard announcing that he would “very much advise you against disembarking. We cannot organize for any bags to be offloaded.”
One passenger, Granit Noham, said the passengers who didn’t want to return to Germany were only allowed to disembark in Larnaca after a quarrel with the airline staff.
Another passenger, Jonathan, said they were told that Israel had closed its airspace. “Then they said Lufthansa’s security department had made the decision” not to land in Israel. “They lied to us: They told us nobody would check our passports in Cyprus” if they wanted to get off the plane and find another route home. “They wouldn’t give us the suitcases. The suitcases went back to Munich and we simply entered Cyprus and ordered our own flights [home] via travel agents.”
“The way we were treated was shocking, shameful, disgusting, with constant threats about the police, as though we had done something wrong,” he said.
The airline told Channel 12 that the plane landed in Cyprus “as a precautionary measure due to security activity.”
Additionally, an Austrian Airlines flight late Wednesday from Vienna to Tel Aviv turned around in the air “somewhere around Cyprus” and returned to Vienna, a passenger on the flight told the Ynet news site.
Major airlines have canceled flights to Israel this week, as the country braces for an expected response to the assassinations earlier this week of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut — after a rocket fired by the terror group killed 12 children in the Golan Heights on Saturday — and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
United Airlines canceled its daily flights to Tel Aviv starting Wednesday and until Tuesday, August 6, citing “security reasons.”
Delta Airlines paused flights between New York and Tel Aviv starting Wednesday and at least through Friday, August 2, saying in a statement that it is “continuously monitoring the evolving security environment.”
FlyDubai and Brussels Airlines have also announced cancellations.
Major airlines’ flights to Israel have been canceled and resumed several times since the war broke out on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
At the time, almost all foreign airlines canceled their flights to Israel, leaving travelers from Ben Gurion Airport almost entirely dependent on Israeli carriers El Al Israel Airlines, Israir, and Arkia.
Flights began resuming in March, only to be stopped again in April when tensions between Israel and Iran exploded after a Damascus airstrike killed several Iranian commanders, and Iran responded with an unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel the night of April 13.
British Airways resumed flights in late April, and United and Delta resumed them in June.
Many airlines already canceled flights to and from Beirut this week, the site of Lebanon’s only international airport, amid escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah following the rocket attack on Saturday.
Several Western countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have warned their citizens against travel to Lebanon or urged them to leave while commercial flights are still available.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war against Hamas there. Israel has said it does not want war, but is willing to fight one if necessary.
Source » timesofisrael