FAA grounds flight to Israel. I used to fly Athens-Tel Aviv in the mid-to-late 80s.

[trof]

http://cjnews.com/privacy-policy?q=node/127935

This is a BIG deal.
Not just passengers, cargo too.
Canada has signed on and many European carriers.

In the mid 80s I flew the TWA 'shuttle' from Athens to Tel Aviv and Athens to Cairo.
Back then, if you wanted/needed to fly from Cairo to Tel Aviv you had to go through Athens or some other airport/country 'acceptable' to Arab/Muslim countries.
Entries from Tel Aviv were not possible to Arab countries.

Israel (kindly) would not stamp entries for airline crews' passports so as not to cause us problems entering other middle eastern countries.

This kicks the whole Israel/Gaza conflict up another notch.
damn

[trof]

3. I once flew over Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war.

We were flying cargo from Paris to Bombay (TWA).
We could see muzzle flashes from artillery.
Interesting.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Fortunate they didn't have level 330+ SAMs those days

This Ukraine incident (regardless of fault) was insane.

[Caretha]

2. Yep

I remember that route. I once sat on the Athens tarmac for over 4 hours. No air, no water, nada. It took me over 26 hours in route to get to Tel Aviv.

Edited to add: That flight was in early 80 I believe, a week before the war broke out in Beirut.

[trof]

4. If you were on a TWA 727 you might have been on my flight.

Was there a tall, really handsome guy in the cockpit?

[Caretha]

5. Yes it was TWA

Was there a beautiful dark long haired 26 yr old woman sitting next to a swarthy Greek man with hair growing out of his nose?

[trof]

6. THAT WAS YOU?

I thought he was your uncle.

[Caretha]

7. Lol

I confess, that was me, and no it wasn't my Uncle. Heh...Good cover, huh?