- El Al said the plane, en route from Warsaw to Tel Aviv, made an emergency landing in Turkey.
- The Israeli airline said local staff at Antalya airport refused to refuel the plane.
- Tensions between the two countries have been rising since Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Israel’s national airline El Al said local airport officials refused to refuel one of its planes that made an emergency landing in Turkey on Sunday.
Flight LY5102, flying from Warsaw to Tel Aviv, landed in Antalya almost three hours after the flight began, according to data from flight tracking website FlightAware.
The plane then flew to Rose International Airport, where it stopped for about an hour before continuing on to its final destination, according to FlightAware data.
In a statement to Business Insider, an El Al spokesperson said that a local employee in Turkey “refused to refuel the airline’s planes despite having a medical issue.”
A spokesman said passengers needing medical treatment were evacuated.
The airline told BI that the plane eventually took off for the Greek island of Rhodes, where it refueled before continuing on to Israel.
The plane had been on the runway at the Turkish airport for about two hours, Israeli news agency Mako said.
A passenger on the flight, who gave his name only as Mr Avner, told Mako that passengers were told local airport staff would refuel the plane but “the ground staff did not cooperate.”
An anonymous Turkish diplomatic source told The Times of Israel that “the plan was to refuel the plane for humanitarian reasons, but the captain decided to leave of his own accord just before the relevant procedures were completed.”
According to Mako, Antalya was one of the most popular holiday destinations for Israeli tourists last year.
However, since the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7 and the subsequent invasion of Gaza, all direct flights between Israel and Turkey have been cancelled.
In May, Turkey suspended all trade with Israel over the Gaza war and sought to join South Africa’s genocide lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Turkish President Erdogan has also stepped up his criticism of Israel, calling it a “terrorist state” in November last year.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not be lectured by leaders who “bomb Kurdish villages.”
