Update: After the diversion, BA has announced that it will suspend all flights to Israel.
BA flight 165, an A350 flying from London to Tel Aviv, was below 10,000 feet flying over Israel on its approach to Ben Gurion Airport when it aborted its landing.
There was a red alert at the airport, which caused passengers to seek shelter and other flights to go into a holding pattern for a few minutes. Those included El Al flight 22 from Fort Lauderdale, El Al flight 5136 from Larnaca, El Al flight 354 from Munich, El Al flight 362 from Vienna, Israir flight 884 from Batumi, Arkia flight 746 from Paris, and Blue Bird flight 705 from Athens.
No other flights diverted and the Israel Airports Authority confirmed that no rockets landed anywhere near the airport.
BA is one of the few foreign carriers still operating commercial flights into Tel Aviv.
The BA pilot attributed the diversion to security concerns and a decision made in their London headquarters to return to the origin, causing what will be a 10 hour flight to nowhere.
The pilot said that diverting to a closer airport wasn’t an option due to a lack of local accommodations and other reasons in a decision made by BA’s security team in London:
At the time of the diversion, DansDeals reached out to BA for comment about this flight and their future flights to Israel, but we haven’t received a response as of the time of this posting. This post will be updated if we do receive a response.
BA has been double crewing its flights to Israel so that the crew stays onboard the flight and the 2nd crew can fly back to London. That isn’t an option for US carriers due to the flight length and rest requirements. Clearly, BA is also fueling up their planes to Tel Aviv to allow for a nonstop return to London as well.
Of course, the return flight from Tel Aviv has been cancelled, which will surely disappoint many people who were trying to leave the country.
Are you onboard BA 165?
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40 Comments On "[BA Suspends All Flights To Israel] Just Before Landing In Israel, British Airways Flight Returns Back To London For A 10 Hour Flight To Nowhere"
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reported to have stopped all BA flights
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/flashes/616481
Times of Israel reported:
“While British Airways continued flying until now, shortly after the flight diverts the airline announced that it is also suspending its service to Israel.”
Are many airlines looking to keep their fleet at TLV for as minimal time as possible? I have not seen many planes parking overnight at Ben Gurion.
I was waiting to board BA 164 returning to London. BH all is for the best. גם זו לטובה!!!!
Hashem is in charge.
G-d helps those that help themselves. Let’s hope the brave men and women of the IDF are ‘IN CHARGE’!
According to Jewish law, woman should not fight in the army.
Not the time for this nonsense. We must all unite as one Jewish people.
Unity is because of Torah not to go against
With guns but cooks and medics fine behind enemy lines
are they really so stupid?
I didn’t think the plane would carry enough fuel for a r/t.
An A350 can fly much further than LHR-TLV and back.
Obviously. But aren’t there landing issues when having so much fuel?
The A350-1000 can carry enough fuel to fly round trip twice LHR-TLV. (Route is 3600 km, and the range is 16,100 km)
Hi all. Can you provide guidance on airline cancellation rules for flights to Israel. Tickets purchased using airline points.
Emirates and LOT (using AC aeroplan)
Should be refundable for free, just call the booking airline.
For clarity.
Emirates and Air Canada flights to Israel when purchased with the respective airline points are refunded only back into the airline travel accounts and not to point of origin (chase or citi points) is that correct?
Point transfers are final.
Is the airport considered in a war zone or not?
Airlines typically calculate the fuel needed for the current flight +reserves and emergency amounts, and only fill the tanks to that required level, as doing otherwise would significantly increase the aircraft’s weight, unless fuel at the destination is scarce or expensive and refueling for the return flight will negate the savings. So this case is interesting.
My brother and his family are on this flight, B”H and I’m relieved to that all of flying are safe. They’ve been on quite the journey since Monday night, starting in NYC, trying to make their way back to Israel. They initially flew from NYC to Madrid via American Airlines, with plans to transfer to an El Al flight.
Upon their arrival at the Madrid airport, El Al informed them that their tickets had been given away, which is understandable given the situation. Consequently, they had to reroute their journey, flying from Madrid to London to catch the next British Airways flight to Israel. Unfortunately, American Airlines couldn’t assist them in getting on another El Al flight.
As of now, it appears they are en route back to London, and we’re feeling a sense of uncertainty regarding how to ultimately get them back home to Israel.
This is so crazy
That it is, but end of the day B”H all are safe!! Just need to try and figure out the next steps…. seems like the only option for an El Al flight is a weeks out…
The alerts were because of Hizballa unmanned aircrafts that infiltrated Israel, not rockets.
could have landed in Amman and bussed passengers to TLV.
My Father/Mother in law with children were standing at the gate in TLV waiting for this flight to come in… had to go all the way back… Disappointing!
If anyone ones to help the stranded passengers please sign this petition to the us government.
https://chng.it/sncCxz7VZ7
From BA website. “Information for customers: Tel Aviv
We’re suspending our flights to and from Tel Aviv up to and including Saturday 14 October”
In reality, as of now, they’ve only cancelled flights through Shabbos. Starting Sunday, their flights are scheduled to resume.
Virgin Atlantic has canceled as well
Both BA and Virgin have said they expect to continue their flights from Sunday 15th
Until they don’t plan on it.
Once things are suspended, it will take changes for them to resume.
I am booked on the Sunday BA flight, they sent me an email saying my flight has been cancelled, and then an hour later sent me that they have only decided to cancel till Saturday and my flight is expected to go. They also told me on the phone that they have an agreement with ElAL to book all passengers that chose to, if their BA flight gets cancelled. But this will only be on the next available space on ElAL
Hi I booked through Priceline for a Turkish air flight that was canceled and I was trying to get refund from them. So far I wasn’t successful but they said they could only refund for one part of the trip. do you know what my rights are? And they weren’t so sure even about that. They claim the flight isn’t canceled…thanks
You are owed a full refund if the flight is canceled. File a DOT complaint if you don’t get one.
My family is booked on VA for that Sunday 10/15 (VS 458 TLV>LHR). Any options you know to rebook sooner? Or any updates if UK government plans to help citizens now that commercial air travel is being paused?
I wouldn’t count on that operating.
I’d try to get to Athens, Dubai, or other EU options for shabbos as described here:
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/israel/quick-thoughts-shocking-simchat-torah-war-israel-strategy-helping-family-find-flights-tel-aviv/
The Starbucks union, which represents 9,000
baristas,joins other American liberal groups in
siding with Palestinians over their lsraeli
targets. The Democratic Socialists of America,
which counts six House Democrats as
members, held rallies in several American
cities to call for support for Palestinians. A
Harvard University dean and dozens of student
groups at the lvy League school blamed Israel
for provoking the Hamas attack.
@Dan can you please reach out to Air France (since you have more visibility and influence than any of us) and ask them why they canceled all flights out of Israel and then decided to send two “rescue” flights with the French Embassy to bring home all French citizens who want to leave Israel and somehow they scheduled it for Friday 4:30pm, to make sure their flights give priority to all the French non-Jews and non-religious Jews? I called Air France and they said you can’t think about religion in a time of war. Thank you
I was waiting for this plane to land so we could fly out!