An EL AL Israel Airlines flight had to divert today due to a medical emergency, and unfortunately this is proving to be problematic…
EL AL 737 diverts to Antalya due to medical emergency
This incident is happening right now (on Sunday, June 30, 2024), and involves 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 registration code 4X-EKA.
The jet departed Warsaw at 11:22AM this morning, and was supposed to make the 1,558-mile flight to Tel Aviv. However, there ended up being a medical emergency onboard, so the flight had to divert. The decision was made to land in Antalya, Türkiye (AYT), where the jet touched down around 2.5 hours after its initial departure.
In these kinds of situations, it’s standard for the passenger with the medical needs to be offloaded, for the plane to refueled, and to then continue to the intended destination.
Unfortunately that’s not how this situation played out, though. Relations between Israel and Türkiye haven’t been good since the October 7 attacks, and there haven’t been nonstop flights between the countries since then.
As a result, authorities reportedly refused to refuel the jet, leading to a challenging situation that lasted for three hours. Passengers also weren’t allowed to get off the plane, which is perhaps less surprising.
EL AL 737 now flying to Rhodes to refuel
As of the time of this post, the EL AL Boeing 737 is now departing Antalya around three hours after it initially landed. According to flight tracking software, the aircraft is now headed to Rhodes, Greece (RHO), which is around 155 miles away.
Presumably this is because the plane was unable to refuel in Antalya, and the aircraft didn’t have enough fuel to fly the 410 miles to Tel Aviv, while still having sufficient reserves.
You’d certainly hope that an airport would be willing to help an airline in a situation where there’s a medical emergency. However, Türkiye has been a vocal critic of Israel since the start of the war, and has also stopped all imports and exports with the country.
So unfortunately I can’t say that I’m totally surprised by the actions of authorities. Frankly, I’m kind of surprised that EL AL made the decision to divert to Antalya, since at the point that the jet started its diversion, it could have probably been in Rhodes just several minutes later.
Of course in medical emergencies you want to prioritize getting on the ground as quickly as possible, but you also want to balance that with the risks, and avoiding situations like this.
Bottom line
An EL AL Boeing 737 flying from Warsaw to Tel Aviv had a medical emergency, causing the pilots to divert the plane to Antalya. Türkiye is no alley of Israel, so the airport authorities reportedly refused to refuel the aircraft.
The standoff lasted for a few hours, at which point the decision was made to instead fly to nearby Rhodes, and refuel there, prior to returning to Tel Aviv. I hope the person with the medical emergency doesn’t have anything too serious, and that the rest of this journey goes smoothly.
Are you surprised that the EL AL plane diverted to Türkiye, and/or that authorities wouldn’t refuel the plane?
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