El Al issued a public apology for an incident in which a
flight landed in Tel Aviv well after Shabbos began following
a technical difficulty that grounded the plane for several
hours at Heathrow Airport in London on Friday.
A crisis developed between El Al and Vaadas HaRabbonim Lemaan
Kedushas HaShabbos last Friday when Flight 104 from Toronto
to Tel Aviv had to land in London for repairs. El Al decided
to lodge all of the shomer Shabbos passengers in
hotels. At 2:00 p.m. the problem was located and fixed, and
company officials decided to continue the flight to Tel Aviv,
although the estimated time of arrival was well into
Shabbos.
To circumvent the commitment the company made several weeks
ago to Vaadas HaRabbonim, the company decided to fly the
plane but to list it as a new flight under Sun D'Or, an El Al
subsidiary.
After learning of the plan, Vaadas HaRabbonim warned company
officials not to run the flight, but they failed to comply
with the request. The debate continued until the last moment,
when the plane was already on the takeoff runway.
During the course of the exchange El Al representatives said
that the plane had to take off from London and, lacking
landing approval from countries close to Israel, there was no
alternative to landing at Ben-Gurion Airport.
On Sunday feverish meetings were held between El Al and
Vaadas HaRabbonim members, who later consulted with
gedolei Yisroel shlita regarding the unfortunate
incident.
On Wednesday El Al issued a public apology reading: "El Al
was troubled by the recent incident of chilul Shabbos
resulting from the landing of a passenger plane after Shabbos
began. El Al management reiterates that it will continue to
keep Shabbos and intends to implement the agreement signed
with Vaadas HaRabbonim Lemaan Kedushas HaShabbos without
deception or compromise.
"Even in the recent, unfortunate incident the company tried
to reroute the plane to an alternate landing place, but for
reasons related to security and beyond El Al's control the
landing was not possible at any alternative location. With
the exception of this regrettable incident the management has
acted in accordance with the agreement since its signing and
will do so in the future.
" . . . El Al management will carry out an exhaustive inquiry
into the troubling incident and will reach unequivocal
conclusions.
"El Al management again apologizes to the shomer
Shabbos public in Israel and the Diaspora which was
offended by the incident and affirms it will meet its
commitments stated in the agreement."
Vaadas HaRabbonim issued an announcement saying that complete
faith would not be restored until El Al carries out several
measures in addition to the apology.
