El Al Flight Denied Refueling in Turkey After Emergency Landing for Medical Evacuation

An El Al flight from Warsaw to Tel Aviv highlighted escalating tensions between Muslim-majority countries and Israel (though there are some exceptions, such as Dubai) today when it was not allowed to refuel after making an emergency landing in Antalya, Turkey. The incident occurred when flight LY5102 diverted to Antalya to evacuate a passenger in need of urgent medical attention. However, according to a statement from El Al, Turkish workers at Antalya airport refused to refuel the aircraft, stating, “Local workers refused to refuel the company’s plane, even though it was a medical case.” Despite this refusal, the passenger was successfully evacuated and received the necessary medical care.

Since the October 7th attack by Hamas and Israel’s response, tensions between Israel and Turkey (now referred to as Türkiye) have been consistently escalatory. In addition to banning Turkish exports, Turkey has also put a halt to non-stop flights between Israel and Turkey.

While it is unclear exactly what communications on the diplomatic front were, according to Turkish state media, Turkish diplomats allege that the plane was going to eventually be refueled, though the standoff suggested otherwise. That said, due to the limited fuel the plane had and since it was burning fuel on the tarmac as the refueling refusal was potentially being ” hashed out,” the pilot decided to fly to Rhodes, Greece, which is about 155 miles away, when that was still possible instead of being stranded in a potentially hostile situation, let alone in a country with an Islamist leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has stated he supports Hamas and is also treating members of the terror org in Turkish hospitals.

The priority to get off the tarmac when there was still fuel in the plane was particularly essential after the world saw what could happen when word of Israelis and even Jews were found to be present on a plane. Specifically, only a few months ago, a mob in Russia’s predominantly Muslim region of Dagestan stormed the airport in Makhachkala in search of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel. Relatedly, only a week ago, in Makhachkala, terrorists attacked churches and a synagogue, resulting in numerous dead and wounded.