A passenger plane of the Israeli airline El Al was forced to land in Antalya, but the Turks refused to refuel it.
Flight LY5102 from Warsaw to Tel Aviv stopped at a Turkish airport to disembark a sick passenger. The plane needed to refuel to continue to its destination, but was denied by Turkish airport staff, the carrier said. In a statement, Israeli airline El Al said:
“Employees (at Antalya airport) refused to refuel the airline's plane, although the emergency landing was made for medical reasons.”
Flight LY5102 was forced to divert to Rhodes Airport to refuel there, El Al said in a statement.
Turkish diplomatic sources told AFP the plane was cleared to make an emergency landing due to a passenger's unwell condition. Israeli media reported that passengers were told to expect a delay of several hours in Turkey, without permission to leave the plane. For its part, a Turkish diplomatic source states:
“It was intended that fuel would be transferred to the aircraft… but before the process was completed, the captain of the aircraft decided to take off on his own without refueling the aircraft.”
Relations between Israel and Turkey, writes CNN Greece, worsened after the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by an attack by Hamas Islamists on October 7.
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