Yesterday’s Lufthansa flight 682 from Munich to Tel Aviv departed at 11:45pm and made a scheduled technical stop in Larnaca.
Reports from Israel’s Channel 12 are that the crew refused to fly on to Tel Aviv, so passengers were told they could disembark without luggage or they could return to Munich.
After 3 hours on the ground, the plane returned to Munich and arrived at 8:56am today.
Lufthansa Group carrier Austrian Airlines flight 859 departed Vienna at 11:26pm last night bound for Tel Aviv, but diverted to Sofia. It then returned to Vienna, arriving at 5:33am today.
When asked about the incident, Lufthansa told DansDeals that,
“We do not know what the crew of the flight explained to its passengers. According to the info we have been provided we can state the following:
- LH 682 from Munich on Wednesday, July 31, flew to Larnaca as scheduled and landed there on August 1 at 02:38 CEST. There was a closure of Iranian airspace (NOTAM) from 04:30 to 08:30 CEST, which explicitly mentioned “military activity”. According to our own assessment last night, the safety of flights to Tel Aviv was therefore not guaranteed. Due to the sensitive nature of the matter, we are unable to comment on further details. As a result, the following changes were made:
- LH 682 turned back to Munich and landed there safely at 08:55 CEST. Therefore, the return flight LH 683 from August 1 had to be canceled.
- An Austrian Airlines flight had to divert to Sofia.
- LH 690 from Frankfurt landed in Tel Aviv as scheduled at 02:01 CEST on August 1 and thus before the NOTAM came into effect. The return flight LH 691 was on schedule.
- The scheduled stopover in Larnaca was solely for the replacement of a fresh crew
- There were 190 passengers and seven crew members on flight LH 682. On the return flight LH 683 there were 167 passengers. Some of the passengers had decided to disembark in Larnaca. This operational stop however is not a regular passenger stop designed for passengers to deboard or board, as no facilities are provided for this. This could explain why the passengers who stayed in Larnaca could not get their luggage from the belly compartment at Larnaca airport.
Lufthansa Group, which includes airlines like Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels, Austrian, and other carriers, will pause flying to Israel for at least a week. Lufthansa Group tells DansDeals that,
“Due to current developments, the Lufthansa Group is once again adjusting its service to the Middle East. The cancellation of Beirut flights will be extended by one week up to and including August 12. All passenger and cargo flights to Tel Aviv will be temporarily suspended from Thursday evening, August 1, up to and including August 8.
Lufthansa is offering passengers affected by the cancelations free cancellation or rebooking.”
This pause will also affect United passengers, as that airline has been rebooking passengers to Israel on Lufthansa Group flights.
What do you make of this Lufthansa flight incident?
Were you booked to travel on Lufthansa Group? Post a comment with what United or Lufthansa Group is able to rebook you to fly to or from Israel.
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34 Comments On "Lufthansa Crew Allegedly Refused To Fly To Israel And Spent Over 9 Hours Returning To Munich; Lufthansa Group Cancels Flights To Israel For At Least A Week"
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Sounds reasonable to me. We need to remember that this is personal to us, but to the rest of the world, it’s just another warzone, and it’s perfectly normal and understandable to be hesitant/scared of flying into an area with potential military activity. I’m sure the flight crew all remembers MH17 and PS752, among others.
100% agree. Crew members are humans, they’re scared for themselves, they’re also responsible for keeping their passengers safe. I get the inconvenience for the travelers, but the crew made a reasonable call.
They never surprise us, do they?
Leopards don’t change their spots, anti-semites don’t change their minds, zebras don’t change their stripes…life goes on as normal.
Stupid statements do not help …. be unreasonably …. Fly el al …. why should they fly as a flight attendant or pilot into a war zone …. Only one life.. airplane for sure not insure able
You can disagree with someone but no need to call his opinion stupid.
Apologies if you thought my opinion was stupid. I hope it wasn’t also offensive. I’ll try to be smarter in the future.
For the rest of you, let me remind you that when it comes to Lufthansa and Germany as a whole, their record when it comes to Jews is indefensible and likely never will be. Some are quick to forget how they ravaged the Jewish people in the cruelest and most sadistic manner. The swine who make up Hamas are pikers compared to the Nazis. 70 years is hardly enough to wipe out the memory of that. I’d be more gracious and understanding of other airlines who don’t have this atrocious history, but Lufthansa won’t get the benefit of the doubt from me.
All are free to disagree and if they’re particularly immature, they can even call it stupid. I’m kind that way 🙂
Sounds about right
i’m booked on Lufthansa for September 10 and worried it will be cancelled. ideas?
Don’t think about it until Sep 6
Make a refundable backup plan
Was booked on Austrian/Air Canada connection, AC accommodated on Flydubai/AC via DXB.
Flying shortly from FRA to TLV on El Al, originally we were scheduled to fly from KRK to TLV on Lufthansa with a stopover in FRA. Once Lufthansa changed the flight to stop in Larnaca, we immediately cancelled the full flight and rebooked just the KRK to FRA on Lufthansa and booked on El Al from FRA to TLV. Looks like a smart decision now.
The decision to abort the flight seems reasonable. Iran closing its airspace raised a legitimate safety concern.
I’m curious about the people who disembarked. How were they certain they could get to Israel from Larnaca? Going back to Munich they could at least figure out an El Al flight.
there are israeli planes that fly to larnaca as well
Michael asks, why dont these airlines just hire israeli stewards that are comfortable staying in Israel?!
I just flew from TLV to JFK with a stop in Frankfurt (I wanted to fly Singapore business class, which did not disappoint!). I specifically chose to fly ElAl for this reason. Everything is so unpredictable. If you wanna guarantee your flight to/from Israel you should only book ElAl
also it seems the airlines may be privy to sensitive information not shared with the public. so we cant really make intelligent assessments.
any ideas for a family stuck in rome???El al is booked until aug 7
Worst comes to worst they can always fly to Amman and take a bus…
Or fly to Cairo and take a camel
We were supposed to fly put from Atlanta to Tlv on August 7th with a layover in Frankfort. They are offering to rebook on the 11th arriving on the 12th erev tisha b’av. Our rov said it would be ok for us to fly then. The question is if the cancellations would be extended or not. We can’t just keep on rebooking. It’s hard to know what to do.
lh 682 and lh 683 are the same airplane why do they have different flight numbers?
It’s quite typical for an even flight number to be a flight in one direction while the return flight using the same plane has a flight number that is sequentially one higher (and thus an odd number).
Or did you mean to ask why some were saying that there were two LH 682s appearing to have been on the schedule for today? Maybe that could be because a delay/cancellation was being rolled instead of being a certain cancellation?
Something about LH 682 being filed with 3 schedules today given how they were rolling with the situation:
1) MUC-TLV
2) MUC-LCA
3) LCA-TLV
All marked as LH 682 for today/August 1st.
I was in EWR yesterday when United cancelled their TLV flight. People were scrambling to try to get rebooked on LY.
One person I know was yelling “these antisemites” cancelled the flights just because we’re Jewish.
In the comments above another person also mentioned antisemitism.
Which makes me wonder, I look extremely Jewish actually fully chassidish, with long black Jacket and wool Tzitzis out, and I fly upwards of 120 flights a year on United and the Lufthansa group. Almost all in Economy (I just flew 2 LH segments today) NEVER have I had an issue with antisemitism or unfair treatment because of my religion or looks. If you act like someone from the עם הנבחר and not like the airline employees are your slaves, you will almost surely never have issues. If your attitude is that everyone is an antisemite – before you even board the plane, you will get treated the same way in kind.
Rabboisai: airline crews do not want to get stuck in OUR war zone, with no way back out. It’s not their problem that you want to go to Israel while it’s an active war zone. On Oct. 7 many crews could not leave and needed to be extracted.
Interesting you didn’t yell “antisemitism” when Lufthansa cancelled all flights to Beirut a full 2 days before they cancelled service to TLV, for the same reason.
Cry “wolf” when there is a real wolf. Save the antisemite card for when it’s really antisemitism.
And by the way – when you are traveling, do us all a favor and act like a Yid: be a real example of how you want to be seen. Don’t make all other passengers suffer just because you are on the same plane.
amen brother
So true,
Well put
Flying around Israel to Amman
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/DLH692/history/20240801/1925Z/EDDF/OJAI
Maybe it’s the same crew as kerister flight.
I was on the flight, the reason we stopped in Larnaca in the first place was to switch to a fresh crew so they could fly right back and not have to stay over in Tel Aviv. The next 3 flights they booked me on all got canceled, going now (or trying to) through BUD
Now would be a great time for Dan to write an article about where El Al flies from, as well as other ways of getting back to Israel. And what about the other Israeli airlines, like Arkia – are they still flying? Haven’t seen anything in the news about them. Can passengers fly to Amman, and if so, is there a safe way of getting to Israel, either via Allenby or Sheikh Hussein bridges? What about flying to Aqaba and crossing by foot into Eilat? What about flying to Cairo then to Taba – is there even an airport in Taba? What about a passenger ferry from Cyprus to Israel? Seems like the safest of these options is Aqaba, as it’s very close to Eilat. There are about to be hundreds of summer camp counselors on J-1 visas stranded in the US, unable to get back to Israel, and their visa is only valid 30 days past the camp end date.
I understand why people might fly Lufthansa (cheaper, better itinerary) but after the previous incident, something like this shouldn’t be unexpected or surprising
https://www.dansdeals.com/more/news/airline-news/outrageous-german-airline-bans-jews-flying-lufthansa-supervisor-jewish-people-mess-made-problems-everyone-pay-couple/