2023-10-13 17:11:21
Swiss cancels evacuation flights for Saturday
Because the conflict between Israel and Hamas is expected to escalate, two flights are canceled at short notice. It is unclear when more Swiss people will be able to return home.
Made it on a flight in time: people returning from Israel at Zurich Airport on Tuesday evening.
Photo: Ennio Leanza (Keystone)
The Swiss airline canceled two flights at short notice with which it had planned to evacuate Swiss citizens from Israel on Saturday. The reason for this is that an escalation of the war in Israel is expected on Saturday morning.
“The Israeli government’s ultimatum will soon end,” Swiss operations chief Oliver Buchhofer was quoted as saying in a media release late on Friday afternoon. On Friday morning, Israel gave the population in the north of the Gaza Strip one day to reach safety.
After that is with the announced Israeli ground offensive to be expected. “This means that the reliable and safe operation of flights is increasingly at risk,” says Buchhofer.
Avoid large crowds
By canceling the flights on Friday, Swiss wanted to avoid having to do this at short notice on Saturday. The passengers would then be stranded at the airport in Tel Aviv and would be exposed to even greater risks. Several people had already booked tickets for Saturday’s flights via a specially set up hotline.
Swiss’s statement expresses concern that large crowds at the airport could be a worthwhile target for attacks. Swiss said it was checking whether special flights could be operated again at a later date.
Other states use military aircraft
Since then Palestinian Hamas attack on Israel Last weekend, Swiss responded to a request from the Swiss Foreign Ministry four Flight rotations from Zurich to Tel Aviv and back completed. The last flight from Tel Aviv landed in Zurich shortly before 10 p.m. on Friday evening.
This means that Swiss has flown around 900 people out of Israel. Last weekend, 28,000 people with Swiss citizenship were in Israel.
For safety reasons, most airlines suspended their regular operations to and from Tel Aviv last weekend. Ben Gurion International Airport is by far the most important airport in the country. Swiss has canceled all regular scheduled flights until October 22nd.
Instead, numerous countries started using evacuation flights to help their citizens leave the country. Spain, Denmark, Colombia and other countries used military or government aircraft for this purpose. The country’s scheduled airlines, on the other hand, took off from Germany, France, Canada and Switzerland.
The security precautions for the special flights were particularly high: rockets from the Gaza Strip, but also from Lebanon or theoretically even from Iran could have been fired at Israel at any time and jeopardized flight safety. In view of the major counterattack by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip expected on Saturday, it now seems conceivable that Hamas will again respond with rocket fire against Israel.
Turn back in the middle of the landing approach
The security situation for the evacuation flights has already been precarious in the last few days: After a British Airways plane flew from London for four hours on Wednesday and was already on its approach to land, the alarm sounded in Tel Aviv because rockets were flying from the Gaza Strip.
When the pilots found out about this, they considered continuing the landing to be too risky and returned to London. In order to make such maneuvers possible, all companies are required to fill up significantly more fuel than usual on flights to Tel Aviv.
Safety first: British Airways Flight 165 had to turn around on Wednesday. Screenshot of the flight tracking site Flightaware
Screenshot Flightaware
Also on Wednesday, the Dutch company KLM canceled an evacuation flight at short notice due to safety concerns. The government in The Hague sent a military plane instead.
The Norwegian low-cost airline Norwegian canceled a flight from Oslo to Tel Aviv and back at short notice on Thursday because the company’s insurance company no longer wanted to cover any damage.
“The plane was only able to land when the situation was deemed safe.”
Although Swiss flew regularly to Tel Aviv until last week, the special flights differed fundamentally from the regular operations. The airspace over Tel Aviv has been controlled by the military since last weekend. Air traffic control in Israel provides defined corridors to ensure safe passage.
“Internal and external specialists had to carry out a comprehensive security review of the situation on an ongoing basis. “They were in close contact with the authorities about this,” writes a Swiss spokeswoman. “They continually reassessed the situation until they landed. Only when this was deemed safe was the plane able to land.”
Zurich-Tel Aviv was also well booked
In addition, dealing with the ground handling processes in Tel Aviv was challenging, the spokeswoman writes: “Although the airport is open, it is organized differently than in peacetime. We also had to reckon with the fact that due to the uncertain situation, ground staff would not be able to get to the airport through no fault of their own.” For this reason, a technician from Switzerland accompanied the flight. He traveled on an additional seat in the cockpit and not in the cabin so that all seats there could be given to passengers.
The special flights from Israel to Switzerland were sold out very quickly. The flights in the opposite direction were also “well booked,” writes the Swiss spokeswoman. She did not disclose which passengers were heading to Tel Aviv. It can be assumed that there were also reservists from the Israeli army who are now being drafted.
Although Swiss flew at the request of the Foreign Ministry, there was no financial support. The spokeswoman writes: “Most of the passengers still had a ticket for one of the flights that we had canceled in the last few days.”
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