Diversion to Beirut
 

This week a friend and his family boarded a flight home from Rhodes to the UK, which apparently ended up being diverted to Beirut, and them having to spend the night in a hotel in the city,. They flew home to the UK the next day. Beirut is hundreds of miles in the opposite direction than the intended route, with a number of suitable airports en-route (eg Cyprus) where they could have landed if the problem had been urgent or technical. Has anyone any idea why this happened?

Airline ?

If the airline has Beirut as a destination, it would make sense to send them to a company destination where handling is set up. Cheaper and more reliable than choosing an airfield with no contracts in place.

Was told that it was easyJet, but could be wrong: my friend is notoriously vague when it comes to airlines: if it flies he is happy, just not when it goes in the wrong destination. But they did pay for his Beirut hotel.

We don't have the day in question. We don't have the airline. We don't have the destination in the UK. And we don't have the approximate time. Come on now, give us just a little chance to help answer your question!

Very sorry, but it's all I have. I can speculate with the best of you, but thought that a diversion for 100's of miles in the opposite direction ignoring intermediate airports was unusual enough that someone here might know about it. Cannot see that the cost and hassle of finding overnight hotels for a whole flight of passengers, plus the fuel costs for going 100's of miles in the wrong destination, would be worth a diversion for just operational needs. Hijacking, anyone?

Hijacking? I'm sorry but this is getting very silly now. We don't want to speculate. We want to try and give you an answer. But you have given us nothing to go on.

It seems surprising in this day and age that such a diversion would not produce acres of newsprint in the red-tops, especially given that the destination was Beirut. It's possible that they were made to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements, but whatever the situation, the diversion seems to be very odd indeed

I was indeed writing with my tongue in my cheek. Just wondered if anyone knew of an unusual reason for the strange diversion: this is a rumour site, after all. But if this upsets anyone, I wont ask again.

These were my thoughts exactly.

This has to be a leg-pull

I even thought Bayreuth in Germany, but there would surely be better options than that. Has nobody tried fr24 playback?

Sounds like a wind up to me though

Cooch

Scheduled Middle East Airlines flight following cancellation of a different flight?

Belgium?

I have done a quick check on FR24 for Tue Wed Thu afternoon and evening and found nothing from Rhodes to Beirut. Personally, considering your friend seemingly hardly knows any basic details, it wouldn't surprise me that it wasn't Beirut at all.

And what exactly is wrong with Beirut? Some nightlife there!

Good title for a novel, though...

Brindisi lies approximately on the route from Rhodes to the UK. Could it have been a case of misremembered/mistaken identity?

Where's Harry Palmer when you need him?

Maybe they stayed in a ‘Hotel Beirut’ ?