An El Al passenger flight entered Lebanese airspace recently, even as the ongoing war in Gaza was raging.
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Accordign to exclusive information Israel Hayom obtained, the Boeing Dreamliner plane took off and headed north en route to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. During the flight, the pilot noticed storm clouds and realized he would need to bypass them rather than fly through.
The pilot, who was in constant contact with IAF and civil air traffic controllers, received guidance to bypass the storm clouds, and during the bypass, apparently unintentionally, entered Lebanese airspace as he made a turn around that storm cloud.
The Israeli passenger plane flew in Lebanese airspace for a few minutes, as flight controllers urgently called on it to head back westward and exit from there, after they apparently were the ones who directed it there.
Video: The tracking data showing the aircraft entered Lebanese airspace
Pilots are guided by air traffic controllers, who usually guide them during the flight and direct them to routes they should take. In addition, in the wake of the ongoing Gaza hostilities, flight paths to and from Israel have been rerouted.
El Al conducted a thorough investigation into the incident, which occurred on October 9, and made sure to make employees get a refresher on the procedures at the company. As the incident took place just two days after the outbreak of the war, the new route had not yet been fully familiar to the pilots, and the intensity of the situation caused much pressure. The incident ended without casualties and without attempts to harm the Israeli passenger plane.
It is important to note that when a passenger plane enters any country, the authorities in that country can easily identify that it is a passenger plane and not a fighter jet. In conversations with professionals, they explain that it might have been possible to prevent the incident if the route had been properly learned by all parties.
El Al said in response: "In the first days of fighting there was an operational need to change existing routes, for security reasons, we will not be able to detail beyond that. We will emphasize that at no point was the security of passengers and crew at risk, and that El Al put the safety and security of passengers at the top of priorities."
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