© AP Photo/Michael SimonIn this photo provided by Michael Simon, a New York-bound Delta Air Lines plane is seen at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, after an emergency Sunday, July 13, 2014. The flight returned safely to Tel Aviv about two hours after it left for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York after flaps on the jumbo jet failed to retract properly on takeoff, the airline said. Delta spokeswoman Jennifer Martin said the crew made the emergency landing “out of an abundance of caution.”
A New York-bound Delta Air Lines flight from Israel declared an emergency and returned to Tel Aviv early Sunday after developing a mechanical problem, vexing passengers already on edge as Palestinian militants launched rocket attacks on the city.
Flight 469 - a Boeing 747 with 370 passengers and 17 crew members aboard - landed safely back at Ben Gurion Airport around 2:30 a.m. local time
after flaps on the jumbo jet failed to retract properly on takeoff about two hours earlier, the airline said.
Delta spokeswoman Jennifer Martin said the crew made the emergency landing "out of an abundance of caution." She said there was no indication the plane's problem was related to the Israeli-Palestine conflict or terrorism.
Passenger Michael Simon said
the crew disclosed an unspecified problem with the plane about a half-hour into the flight. The mood on board, he said, "was not so much panic as bewilderment and frustration."
"Obviously it has been a tense week in Tel Aviv," he said.
Simon said they soon started circling and dumping fuel.
Radar images showed Flight 469 in a holding pattern above the Mediterranean Sea, off the Israeli coast, for more than an hour.
Comment: Is is just coincidence that 4 airplanes have had problems in the last 48 hours?