Turkish pilots kidnapped in Beirut
 

Turkish pilots kidnapped in Beirut
Xinhua | August 09, 2013 14:40
By Agencies




Two Turkish pilots were kidnapped in Beirut early Friday by gunmen as they were heading to a hotel in the Lebanese capital, the LBCI channel reported.

Turkish Ambassador Inan Ozyildiz told the TV channel that he was following up the case, hoping that Lebanese authorities would work for their release.

Sorry to hear the news BUT Turkish flies to many risk destinations with no regard for personnel security.
Mogadishu,Sanaa,Tripoli, Benghazi and a host of others where there are no guarantees of safety and in fact Governments warn of the risk of going to them.
It seems THY don't have a risk assessment dept, if they do they have no regard for the actual risk just for operating the flights.
Duos any body know if insurance is valid in these placis.
Hope the Pilots come home safely.

Beirut a particularily risky destination?
 

So, AF, BA, EK, LH are all reckless cowboys operating there?

MrM5.5

I dont think that was the point Otto was making

MrM5.5, AFAIK other majors don't night stop there - they just turn around and fly straight out.

Turkish Airlines flies all these risky destinations with or without night stop.. until now, as I check with colleagues there, they were not think Beirut is unsafe until today early morning.. but as a turkish airline worker in another company , I can exactly underline that they fly most of these countries due to goverment's political strategy..

I've operated in Beirut with 2 different companies having many layovers there with my first employer.
Once I even brought my wife with me.
Downtown is beautiful. We went out to a caves in the mountain called Jeita Grotto. Jeita Grotto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Been there many times. Out by night in a club, having dinner... and no, no single guy considered Beirut as a dangerous place.
Plenty of expats, american university...

I was there for 5 nights last autumn and had a very nice time and thought the place had moved on from conflict.

Then reading the news 2 weeks later the was unrest in the streets where I was and 16 people were shot.

There is always the chance of things flaring up and nutter kidnappings are not only for religious and political reasons, there is just the criminal element jumping on the bandwagon.

The key is secure transport and good backup with insurance for all risks.

Keep safe out there.

I've just read that THY fly direct into Mogadishu... from my limited experiences that's possibly the last place on earth I'd want to spend a night. :=

Unfortunatey it is just another case of risks and rewards. Such destinations are a goldmine for the few operators willing to take the chance, because the only people flying there need to, and usually have veeery deep pockets (or rather the organisation sending them). From such revenues it is possible to pay both the insurance premiums and the exrta risk pay to crew. And if there is a fat reward dangling, there will alays be a few who will say yes. Does Air America ring a bell to anyone ... ?

PS: I don't know if TK actually pays extra to crew on these flights (Beyrut not necessarily, but Mogadishu, Benghasi, Sebha, etc), would anyone know ?

There is no extra payment for these flights.

I'm surprised this happened in Beirut considering the other destinations for THY lay-overs......
There are some places deemed very dangerous by several countries and THY just tells their pilots not to worry and no extra safety precautions are made.

Why would THY fly to Mogadishu? What's the connection between Turkey and Somalia for heaven's sake?

Indeed they do, and so do the smaller ones too. And this gives a huge dilemma to the expats working over there. For instance, Antonio Planas, a Spanish pilot for Saga Airlines, was killed while on a nightstop in Kabul back in 2011.

Spanish pilot killed in Taliban attack on Kabul hotel

I am not sure that Turkish management are fully aware of the differences in a Muslim Turk visiting such locations, and an infidel Christian visiting the same place. Being obviously Western/European marks one out as a possible target in many of these backward nations.

Any news, about the nationality of the pilot's?

Murat Akpinar and Murat Agca - both Turkish.

thanks for the info!

Unless there is a Tech issue, then that won't be the case as THY don't nightstop their crews in Mogadishu, nor at any of the other colourful places mentioned.

One is more likely to comes into harms way on the streets of many another city, before you would in Tripoli or Benghazi.

I pray for my collegues and hope they'll be released soon and nothing bad happens.

Most likely they'll be scheduled for max duties by TK crew scheduling the day after their return to IST as they had days off. Maybe they trade in some vacation days:rolleyes:

Surely this is a result of the Shia/Sunni religious war in Syria and Iraq.
Turkey is largely Sunni and Hezbollah are Shiite.
There have already been a series of recent events between the two sects in Lebanon. This could well be the latest.

Good luck to the guys involved, let's hope they are back with their families soon.

No they THY fly via Djibouti. The crew layover in Djibouti and then do a JIb-MGQ-JIB-IST.

Ottoforce:
so all the other carriers flying to BEY are reckless and have no regards for the crews safety nor the people travelling there with their families value safety for their loved ones??????

On contrary to what some are implying here, THY has a risk assessment department and hence organise the operations relative to the risk... to make such an accusation that they put lives at risk with no regards is abit unfair, especially if you have limited knowledge on what goes on behind the scenes.

lets all hope our fellow aviators are reunited safe and sound with their family and loved ones soon.