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’ ?

EasyJet had two recent diversions into/out of RHO. One into Athens bound for RHO, and one into ZRH bound for Gatwick, neither of them were this week.

Can't your friend consult the stamps or visa paperwork in their passports as confirmation?

Whom we could perhaps excuse for being geographically challenged - but not to know which date his family travelled on, nor being able to remember where in the UK they flew from/to, nor having any record of the reservation?

Yeah, right ...

I can assure you there is no mistaking Brindisi for Beirut....................... this is getting ridiculous...

This definitely the last time I log in or ask a question on this site. It was a reasonable, honest, enquiry to people in the industry who I had hoped might know more than me, but it seems to have produced only ridicule, probably to make the poster seem clever, or to be 'outraged'. DaveReid , Username and Barry Lloyd have tried to help, but the rest of you ought to get a life. Farewell

I am very disappointed at the way folks piled in. I thought lightonthewater made a reasonable request and would have accepted the results of FR24 and those who tried to help. I did not intervene earlier in the week but now wish that I had. Yes we may all be well travelled and familiar with IATA and even ICAO codes but PLEASE we do not need to return to the days when folks left because of such bad behaviour. I hope that this is only summer madness.

I wonder if it’s airport code confusion rather than name confusion. They might have gone into BGY (Bergamo, as opposed to BEY, Beirut)?

It's a shame the caller had that perception of the site. I have found the members here extraordinarily helpful. I was watching the chap who recently posted some aviation pics and saw the help he got, even though he was unable to flesh out some details as they were old family pics.

I don't understand why the OP was unable to furnish some further answers to reasonable questions asked here? It shouldn't have been that difficult to furnish the UK destination airport or region. Nevertheless folks here went trawling data for him without that, despite that lack making their task more cumbersome.

Yes it's disappointing when others can't find the info you want from a few scattered clues. The leg-pulling over the hijacking may have clouded the issue? Try coming back with the destination airports, dates and airline and I'm sure someone will help.

The OP explained why and all that they knew. Some replies were unnecessary.

I suspect if there was a diversion to BEY then we would have read about it in the Daily Mail.

I think the point is that the only person who can answer some of OP’s questions is OP’s friend. They can clarify which airline they were on, since they presumably have the ticket. Also the country they entered, from the passport stamp. It’s unclear why OP can’t ask their friend. And now of course OP has disappeared.

In my experience people on PPrune are the most helpful I've ever come across- normally a question, however odd, is answered in less than 24 hours by people from all over the world. On the military thread recently a load of people scoured the internet and their photo files to help ID someones relative

It's normal to ask for any other info such as FUMR asked about

"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!"

The fact that no-one, not even the FR24 specialists, can point to any such flight and there is/was zero media coverage is a big flag IMHO

When even DaveReid, who is super helpful, gets suspicious I think some of the later reactions are understandable - possibly regrettable , but the ball is defo in the OP's court I think