Flight with 12 Israelis forced to land in Malaysia, departs safely 5 hours later

Emirates service from Dubai to Singapore lands due to bad weather; passengers remain on plane as Foreign Ministry works to ensure their welfare

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6 September 2023, 7:38 pm Edit

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

File: Malaysia Airlines planes taxi at a terminal while taking passengers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, on April 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

An Emirates flight from Dubai to Singapore with 12 Israelis on board was forced to land in Malaysia Wednesday morning due to bad weather, the Foreign Ministry revealed.

Malaysia and Israel do not have diplomatic ties.

According to the ministry, Director-General Ronen Levy oversaw efforts to contact the passengers and ensure that they were safe. Diplomats worked with Emirates to contact one of the passengers and stay abreast of their welfare.

The passengers on Flight 354 did not deplane, and took off again for Singapore after waiting on the runway for five hours.

Last month, a plane from the Seychelles to Tel Aviv full of Israeli passengers made an unscheduled landing in Saudi Arabia — which also does not maintain relations with Israel — due to a technical issue.

A replacement flight was organized to fly the passengers to Tel Aviv the next morning.