Israeli passengers recall unexpected landing in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Two Israeli passengers on a FlyDubai flight unexpectedly found themselves in Pakistan on Wednesday when the plane they were travelling in made an emergency landing at Karachi airport due to a medical emergency.

The Israeli passengers, who were en route from Dubai to Sri Lanka, faced a few nervous hours on the tarmac in a country which has no diplomatic ties to Israel, according to israelhayom.com.

Pakistani media reported that the plane remained at the Karachi airport for nearly two hours before continuing to Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Israel and Pakistan have designated each others as high-risk nations, strictly forbidding landings within their respective lands. In an official statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said: “During the night, a FlyDubai flight en route to Sri Lanka made an emergency landing in Karachi. Two Israeli citizens were on board at the time. The Situation Center and the Department for Israelis Abroad at the Foreign Ministry were updated about the event and worked in collaboration with other agencies to ensure the well-being of the Israelis. After a short time, the plane continued on its way with the Israelis on board.”

The two Israelis were identified as Rotem Yehud and Itai Roshtein, both recently released from reserve duty who were heading to Sri Lanka for vacation.

The two Israeli passengers recounted their experience says: “As long as we were on the plane, there was no reason to be afraid. They weren’t hostile towards us. The medical teams were the first to board the plane. We don’t know if the Pakistanis knew we were Israelis. We sat quietly and didn’t feel anything different. They kept asking what was happening. No one knew for sure what was going on or when we’d leave. The pilot kept talking, saying he didn’t know if or when we’d be leaving Pakistan, but eventually, we took off after about two hours.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said that a foreign airline requested permission for an emergency landing on July 10 due to a passenger’s deteriorating health. It was not known at the time that there were Israeli citizens on board the flight.

A spokesman for the authority stated that no specific instructions were received regarding the Israeli citizens. The passenger whose health deteriorated was a Sri Lankan woman, who unfortunately passed away during the flight. Upon confirmation of her death by a doctor, the woman’s body was sent to the mortuary. The spokesman noted that during this incident, no passengers disembarked from the FlyDubai plane.