An Air Seychelles flight on the way to Israel on Monday evening was forced to make an unscheduling landing on Monday night at the Jeddah airport in Saudi Arabia due to a technical malfunction.

According to a Saudi news report on Tuesday morning, the pilots notified the control tower at the King Abdulaziz International Airport about a distress call due to the smell of smoke in the cockpit. Air officials at the airport prepared for a possible emergency landing but fortunately, the plane landed safely.

One of the passengers later told Kan News that the passengers, including 128 Israelis, were stuck on the plane without electricity or functioning bathrooms for three hours after it landed. However, once they got off the plane, they were greeted warmly by Saudi airport officials and hotel rooms were arranged for everyone. “The Saudis could not have been nicer,” one Israeli passenger told Ynet on Tuesday.

Another passenger, Emmanuel Carmel, told Radio 103FM: “It was really surprising. We were concerned but they told us ‘You’re more than welcome.’ The truth is that we didn’t expect it.”

She added that many passengers were perturbed when the pilot announced that the plane was making an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. “It was stressful. We landed and then people began to get up and ask what was going on, people started getting upset and crying. We were quite shocked.”

The passengers slept in the airport hotel overnight Monday and meanwhile, another flight was arranged for their return to Israel. Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday morning that “the passengers of the Air Seychelles flight that landed yesterday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia are staying overnight at a hotel at the airport. A replacement Air Seychelles plane took off a short time ago from Dubai to Jeddah and is expected to land there in about two and a half hours. The Foreign Ministry is in contact with the passengers of the plane, with the airline, and with the relevant entities in Israel with the aim of bringing about a quick end to the incident.”

The replacement Air Seychelles plane took off from Jeddah to Israel early Tuesday afternoon, the first direct commercial flight from the kingdom to Israel, landing in Tel Aviv before 2 p.m. Channel 12 News reported that among the Israeli passengers were security officials who were on vacation. However, due to the presence of Israeli security officials in a country that does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, the National Security Council and senior security officials were involved in the incident. The US Embassy in Israel was also very involved in resolving the matter.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released a video message with Arabic subtitles on Tuesday afternoon thanking the Saudis for their friendly welcome to the Israeli passengers. “I really appreciate the good neighborliness,” he said.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)