Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 12, 2026
From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 12, 2026
Ethiopian Airlines flight to Israel forced to turn around due to Indonesian crew member
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Illustrative. An Ethiopian Airlines 767 (Adrian Pingstone, public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
An Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight from Addis Ababa was forced to turn around midair overnight Sunday-Monday, after Israel refused to let it land with an Indonesian crewmember on board, according to multiple Hebrew media reports.
Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Indonesia.
The incident comes in the wake of the flydubai incident, in which an Omani pilot stabbed his co-pilot in an attempt to crash the plane. The incident revealed that hundreds of crew members from enemy states had flown into Israel, a major security risk.
The list of crew members on the Ethiopian Airlines flight was only sent to Israel after take-off, Channel 13 reports.
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