An Ethiopian Airlines flight to Israel was forced to turn around overnight between Sunday and Monday after one of its pilots was revealed to be Indonesian, N12 News reported on Monday.
The Islamic country of Indonesia currently has no diplomatic ties with Israel, making its nationals ineligible for flying to Israel due to the security risk.
N12 reported that the identity of the pilot had been made known to security forces, as well as airport personnel, who had ordered the plane to turn around while it was still in Ethiopia‘s airspace.
The pilot was then swapped with a different one, after which the plane took off again and successfully landed in Israel.
According to N12, the airline claimed not to have known that the pilot was not allowed to fly to Israel.
Last week, N12 reported that over 1,200 aviation crew members from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel, including Iran, might have entered the country, citing the Knesset’s Intelligence Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
N12 cited sources present at the committee meeting on the subject, who said that the revelation came as a surprise to the Transportation Ministry representative.
Aaron Glick contributed to this report.