Jerusalem, May 06: Israel’s main international airport has started using emergency fuel reserves to resume departure flights which had been grounded over fears of contaminated jet fuel.
Departures from Ben Gurion international airport outside Tel Aviv resumed late Thursday night after planes received small amounts of jet fuel from uncontaminated emergency reserves, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The flights, however, remained disrupted by a probe into suspected contamination of fuel.
“Flights have resumed using some of our emergency reserves of aviation fuel but aircraft are having to make stopovers abroad to fill up,” an airport spokesman said.
The planes will make stops in nearby Jordan or Cyprus to fill their tanks, he added.
All flights from Israel were grounded Thursday afternoon.
The airport administration ordered the suspension of all aircraft refueling until the source of the contamination is found.
But incoming flights were asked to arrive with enough fuel for their outward journey too and flights that did not have enough fuel were being diverted to Cyprus.
Thousands of passengers were stranded on Thursday when all outgoing flights were grounded as the alert was raised.
——–Agencies