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Turkey’s refusal to help with the El Al flight incident is unacceptable

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As media reported last Sunday, an El Al flight from Warsaw to Tel Aviv was not allowed to refuel in Antalya, Turkey, after it had to make an emergency landing to evacuate a passenger who urgently needed vital medical assistance.

Apparently due to the political hostility of the Turkish leadership, local staff at Antalya Airport refused to refuel the plane before departure to Israel, even though a medical emergency required the spontaneous landing in Antalya and the emergency evacuation of the sick passenger.

Without going into the deplorable and acrimonious state of political relations between Turkey and Israel, which includes the constant and pervasive incitement against Israel by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist regime, this offensive action by the Turkish airport authorities at Antalya Airport points to several significant violations by Turkey of its international legal and aviation obligations.

Furthermore, there appear to be sufficient grounds for El Al to take legal action against the Antalya Airport authorities for various damages and costs incurred as a result of the breach of their professional duties, including the risks and dangers to both the aircraft and its passengers as a result of El Al having to continue the flight in order to find an alternative refuelling location.

Furthermore, this reprehensible conduct of the Antalya Airport staff could lead to claims for damages and tort claims from individual passengers who had to endure several hours of delay and physical and psychological discomfort during the unfortunate incident.

An El Al plane at Ben Gurion Airport. (Source: REUTERS)

The immediate reaction of the former head of the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Neri Yarkony, was to accuse Turkey of an unimaginable act and a “blatant violation of the still valid bilateral air services agreement between Israel and Turkey”, which highlights the seriousness of this incident.

Against the rules

The Chicago International Convention on Civil Aviation of 1944, which has been amended several times over the years and to which Turkey is a party, requires all states to “take all practicable measures to facilitate and expedite, by the adoption of special regulations or otherwise, the movement of aircraft between the territories of the Contracting States and to avoid unnecessary delays to aircraft, crews, passengers and cargo…” (Article 22).

Article 25 further states that Contracting States “shall afford to aircraft in distress within their territory such assistance as they consider practicable and shall permit the owners of the aircraft or the authorities of the State in which the aircraft is registered, under the supervision of their own authorities, to take such measures of assistance as the circumstances may require” (Article 25).

The International Civil Aviation Organization established by the Convention has the task of “ensuring that the rights of Contracting States are fully respected and that each Contracting State has fair opportunities to operate an international airline” (Article 43(f)).

In the bilateral air transport relations between Israel and Turkey, as agreed in the still valid 1953 Bilateral Air Transport Agreement and in the new, updated 2022 Agreement, which is applicable but has yet to enter into force, the two parties have committed to “ensure that the airlines of the other Party are granted neutral and non-discriminatory access to airport facilities and all related services” (Article 13, entitled “Principles for the operation of agreed services”).

Of course, the legal consequences of this regrettable incident must be examined at all relevant levels – both between the two States and their respective civil aviation authorities, between El Al and the authorities and staff of Antalya Airport, and between the passengers of the aircraft who had to endure the humiliation, inconvenience and discomfort caused by the impulsive, arbitrary and blatantly illegal behaviour of the Antalya Airport staff who refused to refuel the aircraft after an emergency landing.

The author is an international lawyer who has served as legal advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participated in the negotiation and drafting of bilateral air transport agreements between Israel and other states, represented Israel at conferences and meetings of the International Civil Aviation Organization, served as Israel’s ambassador to Canada, and currently heads the International Law Program at the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs.



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