‘Landing in Palestine’: Uproar erupts on Ryanair flight to Tel Aviv

A stewardess on the Irish budget airline Ryanair caused an uproar on a flight to Tel Aviv this week, telling passengers they were landing in Palestine.

According to media reports, during the Sunday flight from Bologna, Italy to Tel Aviv, a stewardess repeatedly said over the PA system in both English and Italian that the final destination was “occupied Palestine.”

When passengers asked her to correct herself, the stewardess refused and an uproar broke out. Passengers tried to photograph the stewardess and identify her but were threatened with arrest upon landing, Channel 12 reported.

On Thursday, Ryanair airline apologized for the incident, calling it an “innocent mistake.”

“A junior crew member on this flight from Bologna to Tel Aviv (10 June) made a routine descent PA mistakenly saying ‘Palestine’ instead of ‘Tel Aviv.’ This was an innocent mistake with no intent and was immediately corrected and apologized for by the senior crew member on board,” the airline said in a statement to the UK’s Jewish Chronicle.

Last year, Ryanair made 50 Israeli passengers on a flight from Berlin to Tel Aviv undergo extensive security checks, making them miss their flight.