Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, Finds Nothing Abnormal on Delta Plane After Bomb Threat

A bomb threat received on a Tuesday morning prompted security personnel to inspect a Delta Air Lines aircraft at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. The threat was anonymous. The aircraft had arrived from the United States, which Israeli media reports described as New York, according to Ynet.

The accounts differ on the sequence of events. Israel Hayom, as cited by the news site news.az, reported that authorities received an anonymous claim that a bomb was on board, and that Israeli officials ordered the immediate evacuation of all passengers as a precaution. Ynet, as reported by notiuno.com, said the plane had reached the main terminal before the message about an explosive device was received. Jewish News Syndicate (jns.org) reported that the aircraft was sent to a remote runway after the warning. Notiuno.com said passengers were reportedly removed from the plane and taken to a terminal, while news.az reported that passengers were moved to a safe distance from the aircraft.

After the aircraft was moved to an isolated area, all passengers got off safely. Airport security personnel and the Israeli Police then searched the plane. According to jns.org, they found nothing abnormal on board. The Israeli Airport Authority reported that operations had returned to normal after the inspection. Jns.org also reported that security officials believed the threat was false, though the aircraft was inspected as a precaution. Notiuno.com reported that the Israeli government had not issued any formal statement about the incident, and that no official confirmation had been given about the nature or source of the threat.

Jns.org also reported background on an earlier case. A 29-year-old Omani suspect, Hamam al Hamami, is being held in the United Arab Emirates in connection with an earlier attempt to crash a Flydubai plane into Ben Gurion’s passenger terminal. The reports do not link Al Hamami to the Tuesday threat.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog sent a letter to Flydubai Captain Smit Machchhar expressing appreciation after the captain was seriously wounded by Al Hamami. The letter offered the Israeli president’s thanks to the captain for his service and recovery, a gesture of care for one who had suffered harm (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).