An El Al flight from Poland’s capital, Warsaw, to the Israeli capital, Tel Aviv, made an emergency landing in Türkiye’s southwestern Antalya city due to a medical emergency but departed without refueling after the captain chose to leave, according to Turkish diplomatic sources.
An El Al flight en route from Warsaw to Tel Aviv was forced to make an emergency landing at Antalya Airport on Sunday after a passenger fell seriously ill and required immediate medical attention.
Turkish diplomatic sources confirmed that the landing was authorized to address the urgent medical situation.
They stated that the emergency landing was authorized due to the passenger’s illness, but the captain chose to depart voluntarily before refueling, intended on humanitarian grounds, could be completed.
Some reports in the Israeli media claimed that the “refusal” to refuel the plane at Antalya Airport might have been influenced by the fact that the airline is based in Israel.
Suat Seyitoğlu, the chief of Border Civil Administration at Antalya Airport, clarified that an El Al flight from Israel made an emergency landing to offload a sick passenger and then left without refueling.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Seyitoğlu said airport authorities do not handle fuel provision and similar commercial matters and are not a reason for grounding the aircraft.
He refuted allegations that the Israeli Embassy intervened in the situation or that passengers were offloaded.
“These issues are determined by agreements, there is no involvement of ambassadors in these operational matters, fueling arrangements and operational decisions are commercial concerns and not handled by us,” Seyitoğlu noted.
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