British Airways pilots and flight attendants who were enjoying a layover in Tel Aviv on Sunday were left stranded in Israel after a ballistic missile fired from Houthi rebels in Yemen penetrated Israel’s air defense system and struck within the perimeter of Ben Gurion International Airport.
According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, eight people were injured in Sunday morning’s attack, including a 50-year-old man who suffered moderate injuries and two women who sustained minor head injuries from shrapnel.
In the aftermath of the attack, Israeli aviation officials were able to quickly get the airport back up and running, but a slew of international carriers have canceled scheduled flights to Tel Aviv for at least the next few days over heightened security fears.
Most international carriers have not been making their aircrew stay overnight in Tel Aviv due to the continuing security threat and have instead been operating so-called ‘turnaround’ flights in which pilots and flight attendants never get off the plane in Israel and spend minimal time in the country.
British Airways is, however, one of only a few airlines that have been operating its recently restarted Tel Aviv services with a layover in the city.
Aircrew were stranded in Tel Aviv for much on Sunday, but the airline eventually managed to evacuate them on a commercial flight to Vienna, where they will then be repatriated to London.
In a statement, a spokesperson for British Airways said:
“The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our priority. We continually monitor operating conditions and have made the decision to suspend all our flights to and from Tel Aviv, up to and including BA405 on Wednesday, 7 May.”
The statement continued: “We’ve apologized to our customers for the inconvenience.”
Other international airlines that that had aircrews stuck in Israel include Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. Both US carriers are, however, understood to have aircraft en route to Tel Aviv with the ability to immediately evacuate staffers out of Israel.
Other airlines that canceled planned services to Tel Aviv on Sunday included Lufthansa Group carriers, as well as Ryanair and Wizz Air. None of these airlines had aircrew staying in Tel Aviv at the time of the missile attack.
Last April, British Airways faced complaints from flight attendants who said they feared they would be disciplined if they refused to fly to Israel.
At the time, one crew member wrote on an internal message board: “We should be fully aware and allowed to make our own informed choice as to whether we operate these flights – to anywhere in the region – and should we decline, we should be allowed to do so without fear of repercussions.”
Another crew member slammed: “BA really needs to pull their fingers out the cash till and put crew and passenger safety first.”
Timeline – British Airways flights to Israel Keep getting suspended
- October 7, 2023: Hamas launches a brutal terror attack on Southern Israel. In the aftermath of the attack, British Airways continues to fly to Tel Aviv.
- October 11, 2023: Days after other airlines have pulled service to Israel, British Airways diverts a plane on final approach to landing in Tel Aviv and cancels flights.
- April 2024: British Airways resumes flights to Tel Aviv but with a stopover in Larnaca, Cyprus, for a crew changeover.
- October 2024: British Airways again suspends flights following rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
- April 2025: BA’s flights from London to Tel Aviv are finally reinstated in time for the Passover holiday.
- May 4, 2025: A ballistic missile fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen penetrates Israel’s air defenses and impacts within the perimeter of Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport.
- British Airways suspended flights until May 7, 2025, at the earliest.
Matt’s take – Unions Will Be Pressing Airlines to Keep Aircrew Safe
There’s no doubt that many pilots and flight attendants have very legitimate fears about operating flights to Tel Aviv, no matter how much their employers try to persuade them that sending them to Israel has been risk-assessed.
To address some of these obvious concerns, some airlines have only been operating ‘turnaround’ flights to Israel, minimizing the amount of time that crew spends in the country.
BA’s decision to opt for layovers in which crew spend a night in a hotel in Tel Aviv now seems pretty questionable, and they’ll be facing questions from the unions that represent pilots and flight attendants.
What I think needs to be considered in the case of British Airways is that some veteran staff have clear memories of what happened during other conflicts. The most notable is British Airways Flight 149, which landed in Kuwait on 2nd August 1990 just as Iraqi forces were laying siege to Kuwait City.
All of the passengers and crew onboard the Boeing 747 were taken hostage, and the aircraft was later destroyed
This story has been updated to reflect that British Airways employees have now left Israel.
There are far worst places to be “stranded.” This is really all a bit overwrought . . . but it is ironic that so many people in the UK are in the streets protesting for the Houthi’s right to fire missiles at Israel and Hamas’ right to murder kids at dance festivals (15 UK Citizens at the Nova Dance Festival were actually killed by Hamas on October 7, 2023).