Plane makes emergency landing due to fire alert

An Arkia Airlines pilot made an emergency landing of an ATR plane at Ben-Gurion Airport early Sunday afternoon, when a faulty indicator warned of an engine fire.

After receiving the warning, the pilot declared a level 2 emergency situation, shut down the engine and landed safely at Ben-Gurion, an Israel Airports Authority spokeswoman said. The plane was originally scheduled to land at Sde Dov Airport in Tel Aviv, but instead landed at the Lod-based international airport at around 1:15 p.m.

The plane safely landed on the tarmac without any problems, and the 67 people aboard were all without injury, according to the IAA.

Following the landing, the pilots reported that there was no sign of a fire from the engine, and that they assumed that the warning was a false alarm, a statement from Arkia Airlines said. The company, however, immediately launched an examination of the plane on Sunday afternoon, the statement added.

At the conclusion of the assessment, inspectors found that the problem was indeed with a faulty indicator as opposed to an engine failure. The aircraft has therefore returned to normal service, the airline said.

A source close to the situation told The Jerusalem Post that later in the day a small, 12-passenger plane also needed to make an emergency landing at Sde Dov, after being in flight for only two minutes. No passengers were injured, the source said.

When asked about the incident, the Israel Airports Authority spokeswoman told the Post that there were no details available about the alleged event, and that it was not related to civilian aviation.