In
this file photo taken July 22, 2011 a Delta Air Lines jet takes off at
the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Mich. Delta Air Lines on
Tuesday, July 22, 2014 canceled all flights to Israel until further
notice, citing reports that a rocket landed near Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion
Airport.AP/File
The Federal Aviation Administration has told all U.S. airlines
that flights to Israel’s Tel Aviv airport are prohibited for 24 hours
after a rocket from Gaza landed in the area.
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines said earlier Tuesday they are
suspending service between the U.S. and Israel indefinitely. US Airways
scrapped its Tel Aviv service Tuesday and said it is monitoring the
situation in regards to future flights.
The FAA said in a statement that the ban on flights is for 24 hours
beginning at 12:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and that a rocket landed about
one mile from Ben Gurion International Airport Tuesday morning.
The airport is located 50 miles north of Gaza, within range of rockets being fired by the militant group Hamas.
Delta Air Lines' one daily flight was already in the air. Delta said a
Boeing 747 from New York was flying over the Mediterranean headed for
Tel Aviv when it turned around and flew to Paris instead. Flight 468 had
273 passengers and 17 crew on board.
The notice only applies to U.S. airlines since the FAA has no authority over carriers from other nations.
The FAA said it will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation,
and that updated instructions will be provided to U.S. airlines "as soon
as conditions permit, but no later than 24 hours" from the time the
directive went into force.
Palestinian militants have fired more than 2,000 rockets toward
Israel, and several heading toward the area of Ben-Gurion Airport have
been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defense system, but police
spokeswoman Luba Samri said Tuesday's landing was the closet to the
airport since fighting began on July 8.
The rocket damaged a house and lightly injured one Israeli in Yehud, a village near the airport, Samri said.
Airlines and passengers are growing more anxious about safety since
last week, when a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over Ukraine,
killing all 298 people on board. Airlines have rerouted planes to avoid
the area over eastern Ukraine where pro-Soviet separatists are battling
the Ukrainian army.
A Delta spokesman declined to go beyond the details released in a statement.
United Airlines has canceled its two daily flights to Israel out of Newark, N.J., according to spokesman Rahsaan Johnson.
US Airways, which has one daily flight from Philadelphia, canceled that flight Tuesday and the return trip from Tel Aviv.
"We are in constant contact with the FAA and are monitoring the
situation closely," said Casey Norton, spokesman for US Airways' parent
company American Airlines. The airline has not yet made a decision about
flights to Israel scheduled for Wednesday and beyond.
Israel's Transportation Ministry called on the companies to reverse
their decision and said it was trying to explain that the airport was
"safe for landings and departures."
"There is no reason for the American companies to stop their flight
and give a prize to terror," Israeli Transportation Minister Israel Katz
told The Jerusalem Post.
The order could take a toll on Israel’s economy,
according to the Jerusalem Post.
"As soon as the FAA gives such an order to US carriers, in most cases
it's a domino effect, and most European carriers will be forced to
suspend their flights," an industry source told the newspaper. "This is a
huge coup for Hamas."
A representative of Germany’s national airline, Lufthansa, told Fox
News at its ticketing office in London’s Heathrow Airport Tuesday that
all of its flights to Tel Aviv have been canceled.
Air France, Swissair, Austrian Airlines and Air Canada also canceled
flights to Tel Aviv over safety concerns, according to The Associated
Press. Dutch airline KLM also cancelled Flight 461 from Amsterdam to Tel
Aviv because of the unclear situation at and around the airport.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes continued to pummel a wide range of
locations in Gaza and diplomatic efforts intensified to end the fighting
that has killed at least 609 Palestinians and 29 Israelis -- 27
soldiers and two civilians. The U.N. office of humanitarian affairs
estimates that at least 75 percent of the Palestinian deaths were
civilians, including dozens of children.
The fate of another Israeli soldier who disappeared following a
deadly battle in the Gaza Strip remained unknown, a defense official
said Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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