Not sure if this belongs here, in the El Al thread or one of its own...
In recent weeks, planes into TLV have been flying a new path in Israel in which they fly over Modiin/Modiin Illit and some PA territory at low altitude upon landing. It seems to be switching back and forth on different days of the week, hours of the day etc. (IINM it's based on which runway they are using for landing. TLV has 3(?) runways in a triangle shape and that can cause significant changes in path when switching runways)
https://www.kikar.co.il/324642.htmlhttps://www.kikar.co.il/324903.htmlAfter last week Shabbos, there seems to have been an outcry from residents who claimed they saw El Al planes flying overhead on Shabbos. El Al's CEO responded denying any flights on Shabbos and claiming the reported flights may be a confusion with codeshare flights with other airlines.
https://www.jdn.co.il/breakingnews/1176019/This week Shabbos, I was in Modiin Illit, and it was quite a thrill to sit on the porch Shabbos afternoon plane spotting with the kids (unlike in Boro Park where we have no clue from where all those planes headed to LGA are coming from - knowing a lot about flights into TLV makes it that much more interesting. Like seeing UA from SFO and AC from YYZ [10am] etc.) Anyhow, sure enough, between 6:45pm and 7:20pm
I personally watched 4 El Al marked planes with the regular El Al livery flying overhead.
I'm very well aware that El Al doesn't have any scheduled flights on Shabbos. Just curious if anyone knows more info on what these can be. Are they "ferry flights" being flown empty to TLV to operate M"S flights (which would be a serious halacha concern for a frum passenger flying M"S CMIIW)? Or does El Al lease aircraft to other airlines over the weekend? The JDN article assumes they may be flying as Sun D'or, but to the best of my knowledge, Sun D'or does not operate
that many flights that would have 4 flights landing in such a short period of time.
Would love to hear if anyone knows more about what these LY aircraft flying Shabbos are all about.