This sort of thing does not happen every day.
Five Israeli citizens land in the heart of a country, which
is a sworn enemy of their homeland, remain there for twenty-
seven hours and, despite their many fears, are received with
cordiality and all the rules of hospitality.
This is what happened to five Israeli citizens who were on a
commercial airliner that was forced into an emergency
landing in Teheran, the capital of the Iranian Republic.
Just a few months ago the same incident took place without
the knowledge of the Iranians when a few Israelis landed in
Teheran in an emergency landing.
It all began on a Sunday two weeks ago.
Five Israelis boarded a plane of the Austrian airline Lauda
Air, which left Vienna airport on its way to Sydney,
Australia. During the flight, the Israeli media reported
yesterday, one of the passengers had a heart attack. One of
the passengers, a doctor, advised the pilot to land
immediately for the situation was life threatening. The
decision was made to land in Teheran.
Avi Goldstein, an Israeli citizen living in Australia, one
of the five Israelis on the plane, was sleeping. He woke up
when he felt the wheels of the plane touch the runway. He
read the sign on the wall: "Welcome to the Moslem Republic
of Iran" and went into shock.
After the patient was taken off the plane, all the
passengers were told to get off the plane, as it would have
to refuel. Goldstein went to one of the stewards and
informed him of his Israeli citizenship, saying that he may
be in danger in Iran which is considered an enemy state of
Israel. The steward was not nervous and told Goldstein that
there were other Israeli citizens on the plane, "Don't
worry, I won't let them harm you," he reassured him.
He did not calm down, especially after a few minutes, when
he was surrounded by Iranian soldiers in the terminal of the
Iranian Airport. There was a lot of bustle around him as
well as around the plane, and it looked like the passengers
would soon return to their seats on the plane and the flight
would proceed to Australia.
However, a fault was found in the fuel system and only after
three hours, during which the passengers waited in a
stifling and crowded plane, it turned out that there was no
choice but to sleep overnight in the Iranian capital. Within
a few minutes the pilot announced that they would stay
overnight in a hotel. The Israelis announced that they were
not willing to leave the airport, since they feared that
they would be in danger. In the end it was decided that the
passengers and crew would travel by bus to their hotels in
the city and the five Israelis would remain overnight with
the head-steward in a hotel within the airport.
The Israelis were concerned that they might be forced to
show their passports. This in fact happened eventually, but
since they had no choice, they did as they were told and
nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Within minutes, the
passengers received keys to their hotel rooms, where they
were pleasantly surprised by the Iranians' conduct. They
were not fluent in English, but very polite. "They offered
us food and drinks, and one even offered a meal.
Nevertheless we did not sleep all night," Goldstein was
quoted in Yediot Acharonot.
The next morning they were invited to breakfast in the hotel
lobby, where Iranian security men who knew their identity
were wandering about. The tension in the lobby eventually
faded away and the Israelis began to speak with each other
in Hebrew freely. Goldstein attempted to get hold of his
wife in their Australian home, but only got the answering
machine. He left a message. They returned to the plane the
next afternoon where another surprise awaited them. The
Iranian government had decided to turn this into a public
relations event and Iranian photographers and journalists
arrived to interview and photograph them.
Goldstein's parents in Israel had by that time begun to
worry. They were informed of the hitch on the plane and that
their son had landed in Iran. But within a few hours the
plane landed in Australia and everything was ok.
This was not the first time Israelis have landed in Iran in
an emergency landing. A similar incident occurred a couple
of months ago. That incident too ended peacefully. One of
the passengers on that flight, which landed in Teheran, was
Rabbi Moshe Leibovitz, the former head of the local council
of Beitar Ilit. In an interview with Yated Ne'eman
Rabbi Leibovitz said that in the wake of that event, a
series of recommendations were made for correct behavior in
a situation where you are forced to land in Iran or any
enemy state.
If you are informed of an expected landing in an enemy
country, you should immediately inform the pilot of your
being an Israeli citizen, for safety, since he is bound to
protect your welfare as passengers; you should also do your
utmost not to leave the plane. If you have no choice but to
alight to the enemy terminal, take all precautionary
measures, but do not be conspicuous. You should walk
naturally and remain among the crew; not speak Hebrew and
hide the fact that you are an Israeli citizen; present your
passport in the most natural manner, without arousing
suspicion and do not call Israel from the public phone
booths in the airport.
Rav Leibovitz, how did it feel to land in Iran?
"We began to get frightened about two and a half hours
before landing. The pilot did not inform us that we were
going to land in Iran. We were on our way to Bangkok on an
Air France flight. The flight was bound eastwards, but I
suddenly noticed on the flight route charted on the screen
that we were heading westwards. I sent one of the passengers
to the pilot's cabin to find out what was happening. It was
the middle of the night when I noticed that we were flying
towards Baghdad. The passenger returned looking very pale.
"One of the passengers does not feel well and they have
decide to make an emergency landing. They are searching for
a place to land, either Baghdad or Teheran."
It turned out that the Iraqis had refused to let the plane
land in Baghdad and so we had to land in Teheran. This would
mean another one and a half hours of traveling time. The
plane had burned fuel prior to the landing, we are dealing
with huge flight distances.
"When I realized we would land in Teheran, I went to discuss
the issue with the head-steward. He did not understand what
the problem was. `There are international laws about these
things,' he said to me. I introduced myself as the former
head of a local authority in the territories, a former
advisor of the Defense Minister and with me on the plane was
a deputy Major General of the IDF, and therefore we felt
vulnerable. We were eight Israelis on the plane and the
Iranians would undoubtedly be pleased to meet with me and
Israeli Major General over some coffee for a "pleasant"
chat! We were very tense about this.
"The steward still did not understand, and so I insisted on
meeting the pilot. A Transatlantic discussion was taking
place with the offices of the company in Paris, and it was
decided that there was no choice but to land in Teheran due
to the patient and the huge amount of fuel the plane had
consumed during the many hours of flight. I informed them
that the safety of the Israeli passengers on the flight was
the responsibility of Paris and I would therefore like to
speak to the Foreign Office in Israel or the Israeli Embassy
in Paris. Within a short while we were informed that the
French Embassy in Teheran was informed of the matter."
Did this information calm you down?
"Not really. We decided if there was no choice, not to allow
anyone to get up from his seat and not to cause panic on the
plane. There were Libyan and Algerian passengers we had
chatted with, who knew we were Israeli. We had books,
newspapers and shirts with addresses in Hebrew. They put me
into the pilot's cabin, another Israeli moved to the
entrance of the plane and the Major General stayed in his
place. One of the passengers wore a shirt with a Mogen
Dovid which was taken off by one of the stewards. I
requested the pilot not to show the passenger list to the
Iranian authorities under any circumstances, and even if we
had to remain on the plane as long as necessary, no one was
to get off the plane, in order not to create a complicated
situation.
"The pilot informed me that we might have to refuel.
Therefore, he added, the patient would be taken off the
plane, the plane would refuel and we would take off within
half an hour. Due to the confusion which arose, the pilot
received instructions which were broadcast through the
public address system. Also during landing no one was to use
their cellular phones or the satellite phones of the plane
so that the Iranians would not eavesdrop. We did not allow
anyone to move from his place. The crew sat in their usual
landing seats and the pilot and copilot managed the matter
as if this was a regular landing."
And then you landed in the heart of the Teheran, capital
of Iran, with a pounding heart?
"We landed in the middle of the night. Iran was asleep. You
saw planes with the Iranian symbol Air Iran. Actually
Teheran, the airport as well as the vehicles, looks rather
rundown. We only began to taxi for takeoff at about six in
the morning, after five-and-a-half hours, and then we could
see the out-of-date roads. As we were moving towards the
runway we saw the army airport which was also dismal. The
soldiers looked like pictures of long ago. The communication
apparatus is very old-fashioned. I was covered because of my
identity, as if I was sleeping, so it was difficult for me
to see out of the cabin's windows.
"As we were about to take off, it turned out there was a
problem with the payment for the refueling. Usually there is
an international agreement on payment but the Iranians
wanted cash. This has occurred in the past in Third World
countries: the passengers are requested to pay for the fuel
in cash. A representative of the Iranian Air Company came
onto the plane, sat with the pilot, faxes from Paris and
Teheran arrived and eventually the problem was solved. When
we finally took off, the pilots, crew and Israeli passengers
were very relieved. We had already been under a lot of
stress a long time. Each time we were informed that we would
be taking off in another twenty minutes, another half an
hour, till it dragged on five and a half hours. When we were
told that take off was really imminent, they announced,
`This is not a joke, we are really about to take off.'"
How does it feel for a Jew to land in such a
place?
"I thought that if I would be forced to stay a long time I
might need a shul. If they would have allowed me to
walk the streets of Teheran freely, I would have liked to
see the burial places of Mordechai Hatzaddik and Ester
Hamalka. This event took place three weeks before Purim, a
period when the Jewish people merited miracles in that very
place in the past and which were again being revealed in the
present."
When you returned to Israel, did you come to any
conclusions, as well as recommendations as to how to behave
in a place like this?
"After I returned home, I started wondering about all the
publicity and what would I do in a similar situation in the
future. There is no doubt that they have access to all our
newspapers. My conclusion was, that precisely because of the
article about our landing in Iran, in the future they will
have to behave in a decent manner as they did last week.
There seem to have been seasoned travelers on this flight,
but I pray to Hashem there should not be any more trials
like this. I had not a shadow of doubt we would manage to
leave Iran. I was most afraid of their generosity. Generally
speaking, I would not award the Iranians top marks. This
time everything they did was calculated to show the world
that they are not what they are made out to be. I am sure
the topic was discussed by the various airlines.
"It is important to emphasize that all the incidents over
the last few decades involving Israeli passengers on
airplanes happened on French airlines (e.g.: the hijacking
of the Air France plane to Uganda -- B.K.). I would make
another very important point: before every flight, a Jewish
passenger has to find out about the route of his flight to
avoid any potential problems of this nature. I am a
believing Jew, therefore I know the writing on the wall. One
has to be more careful. Israelis try to be like all the
other nations, flying to every location, but the plane's
flight path has to be checked out in advance. Security for
Jews is not at its optimum everywhere in the world. If we
were in the yemos hamoshiach, we would not have to
worry. In the meantime we are in golus, and to fly
without checking your destination is not wise. I, at any
rate, learnt my lesson."
