Jerusalem — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday thanked authorities in Saudi Arabia — with which his country has no formal ties — for their “warm attitude” following an emergency aircraft landing in Jeddah.
The Air Seychelles flight laden with Israeli passengers was heading from the Seychelles to Tel Aviv.
Saudi airspace had been closed to flights to and from Israel until July 2022, when it opened to coincide with a visit by US President Joe Biden to the region.
The Air Seychelles flight made an emergency landing Monday in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah due to technical difficulties.
On Tuesday the Israeli foreign ministry said an Israeli charter flight had retrieved the Israelis from Jeddah.
“I greatly appreciate the warm attitude of the Saudi authorities to the Israeli passengers whose flight was in distress and was compelled to make an emergency landing in Jeddah,” Netanyahu said in a brief video statement.
According to Israeli media, there were 128 Israeli passengers aboard the Air Seychelles flight. They were welcomed and given overnight accommodation in the Red Sea city.
“The reception we got from the Saudis was very surprising,” Emmanuelle Arbel, one of the passengers, told Radio 103FM from the airport hotel, according to Times of Israel.
“They said to us ‘You are most welcome’ and were smiling. In truth, we were not expecting this.”
Arbel said when they first landed in Jeddah “we were a bit stressed, we did not know what was happening.”
Some people started crying, she said.
Jeddah Airport is an alternate landing site for routes to Israel that pass over Saudi airspace and is approved in advance for such flights in case of a need for unscheduled or emergency landings.
Since last year, the kingdom has allowed flights to Israel to cross over its airspace.
Though Saudi Arabia was not one of the Gulf and Arab countries to normalize ties with Israel as part of the 2020 US-brokered Abraham Accords, speculation has grown of an impending deal.
Riyadh and Washington have held talks on Saudi conditions for progress on normalization, according to people briefed on the meetings.