A pilot aboard a British Airways flight has captured footage of the Iranian missiles that rained over Tel Aviv, Israel on October 1. Due to no warning beforehand, passengers' lives were at a dangerous risk.
Flight Flirts With War
A British Airways plane headed for Dubai was only miles away from destruction as Iran launched missiles into the sky without warning on the evening of October 1, around 7:30 p.m. local time.
As seen from footage obtained by the New York Post, several missiles began launching upwards into the sky, intended to land in Israel.
Iran failed to issue a warning to other countries of the missile launch, in which several airlines weren't aware of the hostile environment for travelers. Following this missile strike, airlines issued impromptu diversions to avoid flying over Israel, Iran, and the countries in between them. Flight trackers showed hundreds of flights avoiding the Middle Eastern region for safety reasons, taking detours over countries such as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
Air France flight AF218 was slated to fly from Paris to Mumbai also headed back to its home base after an eight-hour journey (including a four-hour delay) due to the missile strike.
Airport closures took place in Israel, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan that evening, with flights to and from these countries either getting cancelled or delayed.
Many airlines have already suspended flights to and from Iran and Israel as the conflict between the two nations continues. Lufthansa Group, which is the owner of several European airlines, has cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran, and Beirut until latter parts of this year.
Since Saturday, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the European Commission warned airlines to avoid flying near Israel and Lebanon due to an "overall intensification of air strikes and degradation in the security situation".
Only one death and two injuries were reported following Tuesday's missile strike, with nearly 200 missiles reportedly fired by Iran.