Germany – Germany’s pilots’ union criticized a decision by Air Berlin and Lufthansa to resume flights to Israel, ending a ban imposed in response to fears that rockets fired from the Gaza Strip may hit aircraft.
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Lufthansa and Air Berlin said they will resume flights to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Saturday, the same day a 12-hour humanitarian truce agreed by Israel and Hamas began.
The truce comes after nearly 3 weeks of conflict in which 940 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed, along with 37 Israeli soldiers and 3 civilians.
Joerg Handwerg, a board member at German pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit said the decision seemed driven by political and economic factors rather than by security reasons.
“We should not be flying to locations where shots are being fired,” Handwerg said. The truce was only temporary and Israel’s rocket defense system appeared unable to hold up all rockets, he said.
Handwerg said he had demanded that airlines ensure that staff only agree to go on flights on a voluntary basis.
A spokesman for Lufthansa said the airline was constantly monitoring the security situation at Tel Aviv airport, using all available security information.
“A decision on whether or not to fly is made purely on the basis of security considerations,” Lufthansa said.
Lufthansa Group also operates the airlines Germanwings, Austrian Airlines and Swiss.
The European Cockpit Association, (ECA) which represents 38,000 European pilots from 37 European states, declined to comment on the lifting of the flight ban, but said they were concerned about a lack of transparency.
“The main issue is that there is no common understanding of the risk assessment process being used or assurance that the assessment for all airline operators is being fed by the best available intelligence,” ECA said in an e-mailed statement.
“This makes it difficult to judge if the security situation has indeed changed or not, and whether the resulting action taken is appropriate.”
On July 22, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a ban on flights by U.S. airlines to Ben Gurion, Israel’s main hub, in response to a Palestinian rocket that struck a building 2 kilometers away from the airport.
The FAA has since lifted the ban.
Israel said the damage was debris from a mid-air rocket interception by its Iron Dome missile defense system, which it says has been successful in protecting Ben Gurion Airport, along with a precautionary measure of narrowing of air corridors.
Natzi
To #1 - You should guard your tongue. I took Lufthansa to EY, from Frankfurt, Germany. There were a lot of Israelis on the flight. The food on the flight was triple wrapped, and its kosher certification came from Brussels, Belgium. The food was delicious. The service on Lufthansa was very good, and the rest rooms on that flight had very wide doors, and were very easy to get in and out of. Incidentally, on the way back to Frankfurt, I took El Al. When we landed at Frankfurt, there were soldiers with cannons and machine guns, to protect the El Al flight. It was a strange feeling to see Germans protecting Yidden. Incidentally, as we were landing in Frankfurt, all of the Israelis became very excited when they saw the modern skyline of downtown Frankfurt. It was completely rebuilt after World War Two, as a result of the Marshall Plan.
If the Israelis had the same courage that the British had during World War 2, the same could happen to Gaza. The Israelis need to take a leaf out of the strategy book of Air Marshal Arthur “Bomber” Harris, the famous British head of Bomber Command who oversaw the destruction of several German cities. Harris understood that in a war you win or die. He chose life. That is what Netanyahu should do. Gaza should be bombed out of existence. Then the world can pile in and rebuild from the ruins up, not the tunnels down.
To #4 - You have the same mentality, which the Nazis employed, when they leveled the Warsaw Ghetto. As Prime Minister Netanyahu stated time and time again “Our dispute is not with the people of Gaza, as they are not our enemy. Our dispute is only with Hamas”. Therefore, if our dispute is not with the Gazan residents, why then do you advocate destroying all of them, and killing men, women, and children? It is absolutely incredible and astounding that such words would be uttered by ostensibly frum people!
To #6 -CharlieHall- I’ve studied aviation safety for over half a century, and hence, I am qualified to respond to your remarks. While there is no doubt that the Malaysian plane flying over the Ukraine was shot down by a missile, the other two aircraft (one in Taiwan, and the other over Mali) were most probably brought down by bad weather. Pilots learn three things regarding a thunderstorm; a) stay away from a thunderstorm; b) stay away from a thunderstorm; and c), stay away from a thunderstorm. In the USA, American pilots are extremely careful to avoid bad weather. Unfortunately, the training given to some foreign pilots is not on a par with the USA. It appeared that the pilots of the Air Algerie plane were aware of the thunderstorm. They were flying in the Equator, which is notorious for vicious storms. Such storms have been known to bring down planes. A bad storm appears to have caused the crash of the aircraft in Taiwan. It is best to go hundreds of miles out of the way, and avoid storms, than fly in the vicinity of such storms.