El Al’s Warsaw to Tel Aviv flight 5102 diverted to Antalya, Turkey on Sunday due to a passenger with a medical emergency. According to El Al,
El Al flight LY5102 from Warsaw to Tel Aviv made a landing at the airport in Antalya following a medical incident of one of the passengers. After consulting with the doctor who treated the passenger on the plane, it was decided that it should land urgently in order to evacuate the passenger to the hospital as soon as possible.
Since the October 7 massacre by Hamas, non-stop flights between Israel and Turkey have been halted. Passengers were not permitted to deplane and Turkey would not permit El Al to refuel so that it could return to Israel.
Refueling was delayed initially because “permits were required to refuel” which El Al lacked. Then “local workers refused to refuel the El Al plane.” The standoff lasted for hours.
Fortunately the aircraft had sufficient fuel on board to fly to Rhodes, Greece which is 155 miles away. The flight, originally scheduled at 3 hours 40 minutes, will have passengers on board the Boeing 737 for more than 11 hours.
The condition of the passenger with the medical emergency was not known, so I certainly won’t second-guess the decision to put the plane down as quickly as possible – even though that meant Turkey. And I would have thought that even Turkey in a situation like this would take a more humanitarian view. I was wrong.
Turkey is problematic from a human rights perspective, as well as questionable as a democracy. It extracts a tax from NATO and is shaky as an ally. Refusing to allow a commercial airline flight in distress the opportunity to refuel is an abomination, even in the context of the Erdogan regime’s support for Hamas against Israel.
Much of the population in Turkey has fallen into the swamp of Islamism (hence – Erdogan), and its future will be set forth accordingly. I met a few Turks who managed to to relocate to other countries and it’s becoming more and more like the Iran situation – the liberal, secular, more educated people are leaving / will leave / want to leave (but won’t) as the Islamists take over more and more of Turkey, and transform it to a total hellhole (as Islamists do).
Totally unacceptable not to refuel a plane which landed for a medical reason- we can’t second guess if it was necessary – Won’t be going to a country which behaves in this inhumane manner. ,
Turkey allowed the plane to land in Turkey. About the refueling situation, not sure what was up with that but those with acceptable means of payment and pre-made refueling arrangements tend to get priority.
That some people would refuse to do business with Israel’s flag carrier is not surprising. A lot of people in Turkey and around the world are not fans of Israel’s brutal war on Palestinians that has primarily killed unarmed children and women in Gaza this year and last.
There are many millions of people from Turkey or of origins in Turkey who are living in the EU. It’s nothing new for people from Turkey to move to other countries for educational and economic opportunities or for political reasons. It’s been going on for decades before Dude26 even heard of Erdogan.
Shameful behavior by Turkey, who was the #1 tourist destination for Israelis (and their shekels) until the Oct 7th Hamas attack on Israel.
As long as Turkish women can still wear bikinis at the hotel pools across Istanbul and out and about in Cesme and Bodrum, Turkey isn’t Iran and dude26 or others can still get their cheap jollies in a land with probably more brothels than France, Germany and the Netherlands combined. And even otherwise, Turkey isn’t Iran.
Leave it to GUtlessWonder to defend abhorant behavior as long as it involves treating Jews badly.
I am betting that LY will not be overflying Turkey, let alone stopping there.
They could have diverted to Rhodes in the first place if they knew what was going to happen
Many of the Turks are growing fed up with Erdogan and the Erdogan government.
In fact, if the presidential election were held again this year, Erdogan would loose.
Most educated western-facing Turks do NOT want an Iran styled government and will not let that happen. Erdogan has built neighborhood mosques on practically every street corner -but very few Turks actually use them.
The lower classes uneducated love him…but everyone else has grown weary of him.
The rightwing American media paints the picture that Turkey is becoming Iran which it most certainly is not. I travel frequently to Istanbul and can vouch for my statements. In an emergency as this was – the aircraft was allowed to land – as it did. The sick passenger was probably taken to hospital. As for the rest of the refueling – that’s political.
Hate is everywhere where there are Muslims voting in their rotten leaders like Erdogan or the elections are rigged (as they are in the U.S.).
You can’t even get a turkey sandwich there, so why go?
Yea, they probably left the passenger worse off…..
Good. Now outright ban El Al flying over Turkey. Why hasn’t that been done yet.
But just wait – the bloggers will still keep telling us readers what points and miles bargains are available at Turkish Air and how wonderful their Business Class is. The Maldives no longer wants Israelis or Jews but no problem, they will show us the best way to get there. I’m still frustrated by all of those who roundly criticize Israel’s way of running the war but never giving any explanation or advice about how THEY would have suggested responding. Are they saying that Israel should just have accepted the murder, rape, hostage taking and dismemberment and forgotten about it, since Gaza has so many civilains and that Hams puts them in danger? So do nothing. I know – you don’t want to think about it. Not your problem. But when the attacks finally hit America, perhaps you will understand.
Gosh Dude26 has America fallen into the swamp of Christianism? Istanbul has been a Muslim city for 571 years. Please define what you mean before castigating the religion of over a billion people
Anyone take the time to consider that for centuries people have been fighting because of their religious beliefs? Has any thing positive come from it? Must this continue, and if so – why?
At least the passengers didn’t have transit at AYT, it’s not awesome, trust me.
The US should reciprocate treatment to Turkish planes coming here. Treating our ally like the enemy is the same as treating us like an enemy. Having Turkey in NATO is like the fox in the henhouse. Do you really think they will fulfill their NATO obligations if it came to war? Fat chance. Kick them out. Russia’s black sea fleet is garbage anyway.
GUWonder it is not Israel war on Palestinians. That’s a war of survival of the state against islamic terrorists.
Always some toss pot who reverts to US politics. Give it a rest we don’t care what you think Jack Unable!
As for Gaza civilian casualties, what do you think conditions on the ground were like for civilians in Germany or Japan in 1945, or, for that matter, in the American South in 1865? No less bleak or grim than what Gaza civilians are facing now.
In the cases of Germany and Japan, like Hamas, both countries initiated wars of aggression against neighbors in the short-sighted, ill-advised hope of victory, that turned out to be dead wrong
Since time immemorial, the consequences of starting a war you lose have always been dire for civilians of the losing country.
Read the Potsdam declaration of July 26, 1945 if you want to see how the Hamas war should end. See what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 to find out what happens when a defeated enemy refuses to surrender. We killed over 200,000 Japanese civilians in two days, breaking the back of the Japanese militarized government’s will to continue fighting, immediately produced surrender, ended hostilities, and produced peace— All with a net saving of lives.. History may not repeat itself, but it certainly does echo. The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.
What @Mike Feldman said.
GUWonder is a real idiot.
This is a shameful an inhumane behavior. Turkey is becoming more and more vicious and totalitarian. There are rules even among enemies–which is refueling an airplane in business flight, that was forced to land because of an severely ill passenger. Everybody should know to not trust them! It is scary to go to Turkey now.
Maybe the turkey guy Putin and trump should all form their own country in Hell and save the rest of us. What happened to the good old days of these guys dying .
Hey Gary – how about being a real thought leader here and maybe speculate on why this might have happened other than “hate” and fanning the fires of a burning world. Maybe there is actually a little more to this than a Turkish airport (one that I have been too many times) not taking an El Al Amex card because they didnt like them? Either that or go back to articles about people behaving badly and posting on social media. Do better……
Turkey of today is certainly not today’s Iran. But, as I said – it’s inching closer and closer. It already has an authoritarian Muslim-brotherhood-Ideolog as its dictator, and many in the population (half give-or-take) support him.
Like the Iranian Shia Ayatollah, who wishes to revive the Persian empire (though ironically the current supreme leader isn’t actually Persian), Erdogan and his followers wish to revive some kind of an Ottoman empire, at least that’s what he’s selling to the masses, who are deep in their cultural failure.
Most westerners do not understand the importance of pride and honor in the Arab and more broadly in the Muslim world (with some exceptions). Many support “honor killings” (always for women, it’s never against men), for example, and this is seen as a very moral thing. Same thing with dying as martyrs for “Allah” or “defending the honor of the profit” etc etc.
These are not things that a small minority believe at all – this is just the way a solid majority in the muslim world, and certainly in the arab world think.
@ Mike Feldman — mostly true, but read the “The Last Mission: The Secret History of World War II’s Final Battle” to learn that it was a conventional bombing mission on Tokyo that broke up a coup attempt to stop the airing of Hirohito’s “surrender” declaration. Eye-opening and elaborates your points, but notes that many in the Japanese military wanted to fight on even after the 2 nuclear bombings.
@GU — you never disappoint as to your excuse of terror or anti-Western invective. As to the casualties, I tend to believe that most of the casualties were not civilians as those reports come from Hamas, and Hamas has countless times provided false information, as has its step-maidens, the various UN and humanitarian organizations who claim variously, that the people of Gaza are on the brink of starvation, that this is a genocidal war against Palestinians, etc.
When Israel captured Gaza from the Egyptians it had a population of ~ 394,00. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/brief-history-gazas-75-years-woe-2023-10-10/#:~:text=Israel%20captured%20the%20Gaza%20Strip,least%2060%25%20of%20them%20refugees.
It is now at roughly 2,141,643 https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/gaza-strip/, thus demonstrating that the Jews are pretty lousy at the genocide thing, as the population more than quintupled during their “control” over Gaza.
Moreover, the imminent famine in Gaza never happened as there were serious methodological assumptions made in the initial assessments https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-gaza-famine-that-never-was/.
Finally, as to who many of these civilians or humanitarian workers are, I’ll just note that Doctors without Borders was recently shown to be lying about one of its employees, let alone numerous UNWRA workers, or journeyman “reporters.”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/06/israel-releases-evidence-showing-slain-doctors-without-borders-staffer-was-islamic-jihad-rocket-maker/
https://nypost.com/2024/06/09/world-news/gaza-journalist-held-3-hostages-in-his-home-with-his-family-israeli-military-says/
As to you, Anna, you are an abhorrent human being — if that — and Gary ought to ban certain people from posting to his blog for their outright lack of humanity.
I’m glad I already visited Turkey before
The dictator took hold.
I certainly won’t be returning there given its behavior.
I wonder why they are still in NATO?
Another country destroyed by the hateful religion of Islam – Can’t say I’m surprised- If extreme Islam didn’t exist half the worlds wars wouldn’t either.
Blaming Israel is pure stupidity – Blame the colonialist nation of Iran and the extremists in the Muslim world for these issues
GUmoron said “Israel’s brutal war on Palestinians that has primarily killed unarmed children and women in Gaza”
GUwonder is now repeating Hamas propaganda.
Reading several of these comments reminds me of the old saying…”Truth is the first casualty of war”.
@Mike Feldman – The reason the Japanese surrendered was that the Russians were about to join the fight against them. They were willing to take whatever the USA would dish out but the Russians were (like now) utterly brutal in war and Japan would just be destroying itself by continuing. Prior to that the Japanese were preparing to resist to the U.S. forces with sharpened sticks against bullets and artillery. Look it up.
El AL should have flown to Rhodes instead of Turkey since they have no love for Turkey. They are still arguing about who should control certain islands in the Aegean.
Usually countries get paid for overflights. I expect that Turkey gets paid for El Al overflights. El Al should consider if flights over Turkey should be limited, using flights around Turkey instead. Another way would be to always carry extra fuel so as to divert to more friendly countries. With Russia the way it is, keeping Turkey in NATO is still probably strategically correct. Remember the horrendous blunder by Jimmy Carter that lost Iran as an ally and the problems that it has caused since.
@Christian —
The Soviets already had attacked the Japanese in Manchukuo as per the Potsdam agreement. Although they certainly would not want them on the main islands of Japan, the Soviets really had no amphibious capability to shuttle their forces to the main population centers — they were confined to taking over Sakhalin island.
You, too, should read the book that I recommended as it was a revelation to me, as well.
Here’s Turkey’s side of the story, from trtnews.com. I’m posting it without comment.
Turkish diplomatic sources confirmed that the landing was authorised to address the urgent medical situation.
“The emergency landing was granted due to the passenger’s illness. Refueling was to be provided on humanitarian grounds, but the captain decided to depart voluntarily before the procedure was completed,” it said.
How unsurprising that View From The Right Wing decided to lean heavily on Hamas terrorism and not Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The reality is that fuelers refusing to do their job for a diverted airplane are hurting no one but vacationing civilians, though I’m a little surprised El Al didn’t have permits arranged at a known diversion point. Once permits and payments were in order, there should have been no further delay in refueling the aircraft, regardless of personal feelings in this conflict.
I think it’s gross that Polish ppl had to be inconvenienced. Haven’t they suffered enough?
@garyleff If “Turkey is problematic from a human rights perspective, as well as questionable as a democracy” then what do we make of Israel which is occupying millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and is practicing apartheid as per Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and B’Tselem (the Israeli human rights organization)?
Give it to the racist neocon CM to see racism where it doesn’t exist and also failing to differentiate between a statement about how the world is rather than as how the world could or should be.
Netanyahu is no US ally. Netanyahu is an ally of Trump, Putin and Modi. That says to me that Netanyahu’s Israel is either no US ally.or is no better than a rogue “ally” on the level of Erdogan’s Turkey.
Permits or not, I’d be cautious as to with what the aircraft was being refueled.
Have been to approx 50 countries, including countries that are openly hostile to the US. The most uncomfortable I have ever been in a country due to being an American was when I was in Turkey. There was an open hostility that I haven’t experienced anywhere else in the world. I won’t be returning.
“A lot of people in Turkey and around the world are not fans of Israel’s brutal war on Palestinians that has primarily killed unarmed children and women in Gaza this year and last.”
Are they fans of the Palestinians’ “brutal” attack and massacre of October 7th which resulted in the deaths, kidnappings of, and in many cases rapes of, “unarmed children and women?”
Here’s the deal Palestinians – don’t whine and cry when you start losing a war that YOU started. If you want the war to stop, just release the remaining hostages. That’s all you need to do. Yes, there will be a political and legal reckoning when its over but the fighting will cease. As will the whining from the apologists who clearly believe that the aggressors aren’t to blame for starting a war that they had no hope of ever winning.
From an aviation standpoint, that was a terrible move on the part of El Al. They should have planned for RHO to be the airport instead of AYT knowing that Muslim countries like Turkey are not always the most humanitarian. However, this was a medical emergency, and we don’t know what was discussed in the cockpit and with dispatch. The truth is, a few Turks held a bunch of passengers hostage for hours and stained their country’s reputation. It might help if Israel now banned TK from flying into TLV and avoided Turkish airspace while also banning TK from using its airspace.