Contaminated fuel grounds flights at Israel's main airport

May 5, 2011, 18:58 GMT

Tel Aviv - Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport cancelled all refuelling Thursday, after the airport's fuel supply was found to be contaminated.

'We have instructed the manager of Ben Gurion Airport to stop filling gas in the airport's planes,' the Israel Aviation Authority reported.

Only planes with enough fuel to reach their next destination were allowed to depart the airport. Dozens of others flights were prevented from taking off, leaving thousands of passengers stranded since the problem was first discovered in the early afternoon.

Foreign airlines needing refuelling have been diverted to Cyprus, so they will have enough fuel to subsequently take off from Ben Gurion Airport.

Other airports, whose fuel source is identical to that of Ben Gurion, were also affected.

By evening, the airport was dipping into its emergency fuel reserves, and tanker trucks were making their way to Ben Gurion, about 12 kilometres east of Tel Aviv, carrying fuel supplies an an attempt to ease the chaos.

Transport Minister Yisrael Katz called the incident 'severe' and launched an immediate probe into how the contamination occurred. Clearing the stranded flights was the immediate priority, he said, and to this end he would ensure that the necessary emergency fuel reserves were supplied.

The YNet News website quoted an unnamed aviation official as saying that 'the chaos that confronts us now is colossal.'

According to Ynet, Paz Aviation Assets, one of two major jet fuel providers in Israel, said a malfunction occurred in filters belonging jointly to Paz and Mercury Aviation, another major provider. The filters are located at Ben Gurion's terminals, it added.

Paz claimed its fuel was checked and found to be pure, but that an oily substance of unknown origin had accumulated in Ben Gurion's filters. Mercury said it was still investigating the matter, Ynet said.

Ben Gurion Airport is Israel's main international airport. In 2010, more than 12 million passengers passed through it.

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