British Airways has suspended flights to Israel after turning back one of its planes shortly before landing, due to security concerns.
Flight BA165 is returning to Heathrow after nearly reaching Tel Aviv on Wednesday, BA said.
A spokesperson for Israel’s airports authority said rockets were flying around Tel Aviv at the time but were not an immediate threat to the flight.
Virgin Atlantic also suspended flights to the city on Wednesday.
A BA spokesman said safety was the airline’s “highest priority
As flight BA165 was approaching Tel Aviv, air raid sirens went off in the city. British Airways teams were made aware of this and asked the captain to turn around and return to the UK.
“Following the latest assessment of the situation, we’re suspending our flights to and from Tel Aviv,” BA said.
“We’re contacting customers booked to travel to or from Tel Aviv to apologise for the inconvenience and offer options including a full refund and rebooking with another airline or with British Airways at a later date.
“We continue to monitor the situation in the region closely.” (BBC)
