Thirteen-hour ‘flight to nowhere’ for US jet bound to Tel Aviv

Simon Calder and Josh Marcus
·2 min read

Hundreds of United Airlines passengers booked from San Francisco to Tel Aviv endured a 13-hour “flight to nowhere” due to the attacks by Hamas on southern Israel.

Flight UA954 departed from the Californian city at 8.25pm local time for the 7,422-mile journey to Israel’s main airport, Ben Gurion International.

But about halfway along its journey, above eastern Greenland, the Boeing 777 made a 180-degree turn and is heading back to San Francisco. The flight landed safely back at SFO on Saturday morning, according to flightradar24.

“The safety of our customers and crews is our top priority. We are closely monitoring the situation and we are adjusting flight schedules as required,” United Airlines told The Independent in an email statement.

“After our two departures from [Tel Aviv] scheduled for today, future operations at TLV will be suspended until conditions allow them to resume,” the airline added.

A succession of Ryanair flights from Continental Europe to Tel Aviv turned around in mid-air.

The flight from Budapest was over Antalya in southern Turkey when the decision was taken to return to base.

On Saturday morning, Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority announced that no sports or leisure flights would be allowed into Israeli airspace until further notice due to the ongoing security situation, The Jerusalem Post reports.

Flights from Berlin, Milan, Charleroi and Baden-Baden also turned back – the last reaching only as far as northern Switzerland before returning.

Lufthansa told AFP and the Times of Israel one flight to Frankfurt will be maintained but “all other Lufthansa flights to and from Tel Aviv have been canceled for this Saturday.”

British Airways flight 167 is preparing to depart as normal from London Heathrow to Ben Gurion international airport in Tel Aviv, though there are contingency plans in place to divert en route if necessary.

But Wizz Air flights from London Gatwick and Luton to Tel Aviv on Saturday afternoon have been cancelled – along with the same airline’s flights from Iasi, Vienna and Vilnius to Tel Aviv.

At least 20 flights into Ben Gurion have been canceled, according to FlightAware.