- El Al said a plane en route from Warsaw to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Turkey.
- The Israeli airline said local staff at Antalya airport refused to refuel the plane.
- Tensions between the two countries have intensified since Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Israeli national airline El Al said local airport employees refused to refuel one of its planes after it made an emergency landing in Turkey on Sunday.
Flight LY5102 from Warsaw to Tel Aviv landed in Antalya almost three hours into its journey, according to data from flight tracking website FlightAware.
FlightAware data shows the plane then flew to Rhodes International Airport, stopping for around an hour, before heading to its final destination.
In a statement to Business Insider, an El Al spokesperson said that local workers in Turkey “refused to refuel the company’s aircraft, even though it was a medical case.”
The spokesman said one passenger requiring medical attention was evacuated.
The airline told BI that the plane eventually took off for Rhodes in Greece and refueled there before heading to Israel.
According to Israeli media Mako, the plane remained on the tarmac of the Turkish airport for about two hours.
A passenger on the flight, identified only as Avner, told Mako that passengers were told that local airport workers were going to refuel the plane, but that “the ground crew was not cooperating.”
An unnamed Turkish diplomatic source told The Times of Israel that “fuel was to be provided to the plane for humanitarian reasons, but as the relevant procedure was about to be completed, the captain decided to depart from his own leader”.
Last year, Antalya was one of the most popular holiday destinations for Israeli tourists, according to Mako.
However, since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and the subsequent invasion of Gaza, all direct flights between Israel and Turkey have been canceled.
In May, Turkey stopped all trade with Israel over the Gaza war and sought to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan has also stepped up his criticism of Israel, calling it a “terrorist state” last November.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not be lectured by a leader who “bombs Kurdish villages.”
