As reported by BBC, utter chaos erupted last night at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) over an American family’s souvenir…
Unexploded artillery shell chaos at Tel Aviv Airport
On Thursday evening an American family tried to fly out of Tel Aviv Airport with an unexploded artillery shell, which they had picked up while touring Golan Heights (the site of war between Israel and Syria).
Israel is known for its incredibly tight airport security checks. According to reports, a member of the family removed the shell from a backpack, and asked a security official if it could be placed in the suitcase and checked.
The security official at this point ordered the immediate area to be cleared, but another passenger misunderstood what was said, and started shouting “terrorists shooting,” which caused mass panic.
There’s video footage on Twitter where you can see utter panic in the check-in hall, with some people running, and others lying on the floor. You really have to watch the video to appreciate the level of panic that there was in the terminal.
One man even got injured and had to be hospitalized. He feared someone was shooting bullets, so he ran toward check-in and then stumbled on a conveyor belt and “flew a distance of six meters.”
Interestingly despite this incident, the family ended up being allowed to board their flight to the United States.
Who is to blame for the incident?
It’s not every day that you see Tel Aviv Airport having a full-on episode where people are fearing for their lives. It seems like there were several people making bad decisions that caused this incident to unfold the way it did:
- Did the family really have to take an unexploded artillery shell from Golan Heights home with them? I’m not an expert on this kind of stuff, but trying to take something like this to an airport seems totally wild to me, but maybe I’m off base…
- On the plus side, at least they disclosed it, so it sounds like maybe the security official should have communicated to other passengers more clearly about what the situation was, so as not to cause panic
- Really what caused panic was a passenger yelling “terrorist shooting,” because that’s what they thought they heard the security official saying; this situation likely wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for that person, but then again, they were obviously just terrified and misunderstood the situation
Bottom line
Ben Gurion Airport had a major incident on Thursday evening, when an American family tried to fly home with an unexploded artillery shell that they got in Golan Heights. A security official tried to clear the area, and someone misunderstood that there was an act of terrorism, leading to mayhem.
Despite the incident, the family was allowed to fly home as scheduled…
What do you make of this Ben Gurion Airport scare?
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