While some foreign airlines canceled their flights to and from Israel following the outbreak of war in Gaza, some aircrews refuse to fly to Israel – even while working for Israeli airlines.
Arkia Airlines rescue flight 221 from Athens to Israel, which was supposed to take off at 09:40, was delayed for hours after a foreign crew from Bulgaria, including the pilot and flight attendants that Arkia hired to operate the plane, refused to fly to Israel.
Ofir Fahima, who is currently in Athens along with many other Israelis who planned to come to Israel due to the war with Gaza, told Walla! Tourism that he and his wife arrived in Athens via Istanbul to return to Israel following the absence of his wife's father for two days following the war. "All the time, the flight was being postponed," said Fahima, "and a special flight crew arrived from Israel, then we got to the plane and the foreign crew was not ready to fly, and all the crew members got off, took their luggage, and left. The plane is empty and we are stuck on the bus near the plane," Fahima explained.
Arkia has not yet given a response to the incident, but according to the video recorded by Fahima, it can be seen that the plane's crew belongs to the Bulgarian charter company "Electra Airways", rather than Arkia Airlines itself.
According to Fahima, the passengers are begging Arkia to fly an Israeli crew and to make the rescue flight from Athens go as planned.
Israeli passengers diverted to Cyprus
Israeli citizen Oren Ohana, who boarded IsrAir flight 6H572 from Thessaloniki, Greece at 10:50, found himself, like the other passengers, suddenly diverted in Larnaca International Airport Cyprus without knowing when the plane took off. "Without any warning, we received a message that they were landing in Larnaca," Oren Ohana told Walla! Tourism, adding that "the flight attendant told me that he and the pilot are European citizens and they are not allowed to continue."
IsrAir's flight was operated by a crew from Czech charter company Smart Wigans, which Israeli airlines IsrAir and El Al use regularly. According to Ohana, the passengers humbly accepted the message that was delivered about two minutes before landing in Cyprus.
"I don't understand why they didn't say anything before?" he adds, "We are now on our way to passport control and there are hundreds of people here, and we have not been told anything about what is happening to us. We have people here with Order 8 (reserve duty), but there is nothing we can do about it now, and we would be happy to receive information about what is happening with us, or at least that they would have been informed before the flight so we could decide whether to board the flight or not."
IsrAir stated: "In light of the security situation, the Smart Wings airline that operated flight No. 6H572 from Thessaloniki to Tel Aviv today 08.10.23, landed in Larnaca. We are making every effort to operate a connecting flight in the coming hours from Larnaca to Tel Aviv. We will continue and update you in the near future. Sorry for the inconvenience."