Turkey: abuse on Israeli plane in emergency

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In order to remove a passenger in need of medical attention, an Israeli airline aircraft, EL AL, flying from Warsaw to Tel Aviv, was obliged to make an emergency landing at Antalya airport in Turkey.

The commander requested enough fuel to reach her destination after entrusting the Turkish doctors with a woman who had most likely suffered from a heart attack, as is standard procedure in these situations. However, the Turkish airport staff declined, even though the landing was an emergency.

It should also be emphasized that the passengers were not allowed to depart, which is again against all regulations. To make matters worse, the plane was forced to park in a place that was fully exposed to sunlight.

Along with refusing to provide food and drink to the passengers, the Turkish staff undoubtedly did so at the bosses' orders. None of these items were made accessible to the crew for distribution among the passengers.

Subsequently, the flight commander communicated with the Greek authorities and took the decision to depart for Rhodes, which was 40 minutes away, and refuel at the island's airport, prior to the gasoline reserve in the tanks running out.

It was obvious that the Turkish government was making every effort to maintain the plane's grounding and establish fresh diplomatic relations.

It is not impossible that at that point the Turkish authorities would have arrested the passengers and crew for fictitious charges.

It should be mentioned that trustworthy sources claim that the control tower did not help the pilots during takeoff and that they were forced to depart the ground using only the instrumental data aboard the aircraft.

The aircraft was able to complete its daring voyage after receiving fuel in Greece, and on June 30th in the evening, it landed in Israel.

This is the first occasion in civil aviation history that a flight that has landed due to an emergency has not been granted ground assistance.