Israel’s neighbours closed airspace and airline crews skirted an escalating conflict, with many seeking diversions, after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for tracking service FlightRadar24 said flights diverted “anywhere they could”, and a snapshot of traffic in the region showed flights spreading in wide arcs to the north and south, with many converging on Cairo and Istanbul.
FlightRadar24 said Istanbul and Antalya in southern Turkey were becoming congested, forcing some airlines to divert south.
Eurocontrol, a pan-European air traffic control agency, earlier sent a warning to pilots about the escalating conflict.
“A major missile attack has been launched against Israel in the last few minutes. At present, the entire country is under a missile warning,” it said in an urgent navigation bulletin.
Shortly afterwards it announced the closure of Jordanian and Iraqi airspace as well as the closure of a key crossing point into airspace controlled by Cyprus.
Israel later reopened its airspace after the Iranian missile attack, AP reports.
Reuters
Source Agencies
