HYDERABAD: At least five people from Telangana were waiting to board their flight to Hyderabad at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport when Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles on the Jewish nation. Following this, the flights were cancelled as the Israeli authorities ordered the shutdown of its airspace.
As a result, all the passengers were asked to return to their homes. Recounting the incident, C Prakash, a native of Nizamabad, who has been living in Tel Aviv for the past six years, explained how some of them were afraid to step out of the airport after the cancellation announcement was made.
“As my flight was scheduled for 12 am, I had arrived well before time. There were only around 150 people in the airport, including five of us from Telangana, as it was the weekend. When I was at the check-in counter, the airline staff came and informed us that the flight had been cancelled,” Prakash told TNIE over phone from Israel’s cultural and financial capital.
The 45-year-old, who hails from Degaon village in Armoor mandal and works in the caregiving profession, went on to say, “The authorities said the flight was cancelled as Iran has launched an attack on Israel. Even though we heard of Iran’s threat of attack for the past few days, many were taken aback. Tension was clearly visible on the faces of many people, as they were scared to move out of the airport despite the authorities’ request. But some, like me and other Telugu people I met at the airport, came out and booked our taxis for home. I was confident that Israeli forces would handle the situation.”
As Israel aviation authorities announced the reopening of its airspace on Sunday along with Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, Prakash, the father of two, is now looking at reattempting to book a ticket to fly back home. “It has been around a year since I met my wife and my children, so I would like to return home at the first chance,” he said.
Soma Ravi (48), former president of the Israel Telangana Association (ITA), said business is as usual in the central-west city. “It was about 11 pm here (IST 01:30) when I saw the news of the attack. Usually the siren goes through a city if there is an attack, and we rush to the bomb shelter rooms in our houses. But that was not the situation on Saturday night,” the native of Nizamabad told TNIE.