Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

El Al Flight From New York Lands Safely After Bomb Threat

An El Al Boeing 747 flight from New York landed at its Tel Aviv destination on Tuesday after a bomb threat led France and Switzerland to send warplanes to escort the Israeli airliner over their territory.

No emergency was declared at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport, where the El Al jet touched down, a Reuters TV cameraman at the scene said.

The Israel Airports Authority said the Swiss air force had scrambled F-18 aircraft to escort the plane “because of a bomb threat.” The Swiss Air Force said it had deployed an air police “hot mission” to accompany a flight.

Sky Guide, a Swiss air navigation service provider, said the bomb threat was received when the El Al aircraft was over France. It said the flight was accompanied by French fighter jets before it crossed into Swiss air space.

An El Al spokeswoman declined to give details about what she described as an anonymous threat, or comment on why the airline, considered one of the most security-conscious in the world, had not opted for an emergency landing en route to Tel Aviv.

Alluding to the question of whether the airline had deemed the threat credible, she said: “You can understand on your own, if the plane (continued) on its way.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.