Packages being unloaded from a plane on the tarmac at Beirut International Airport on June 24, 2024. Photo credit: Mohammad Yassine/L’Orient-Le Jour
The Israeli army hacked the control tower of Beirut International Airport on Saturday, threatening an Iranian plane that was supposed to land there and forced it to turn back, according to information reported by a source within the Ministry of Transport cited by Reuters.
After Israeli threats, the Ministry of Transport asked the plane not to enter Lebanese airspace, an order to which the plane complied. This source indicates that the plane was not in Lebanese airspace when the threats were sent to the airport. The source adds that the Hebrew state had threatened to use "force" if the plane landed.
The director of Lebanese Civil Aviation, Fadi el-Hassan, was not immediately available to comment on the matter to L'OLJ.
According to unconfirmed information circulating on social networks, it would be a flight of the Fars Air Qeshm company, which has repeatedly found itself at the center of rumors concerning arms transfers between Tehran and Beirut, notably in 2018.
No liaison for this airline was visible on the airport’s arrival boards or on online flight tracking platforms, such as PlaneFinder and FlightRadar, consulted by OLJ.
Despite the massive strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut last night, the airport remained open and several flights, notably of the national company Middle East Airlines, are still scheduled.
