Flights delayed from Israel's main airport
Ben Gurion flights resume after polluted fuel causes grounding
(CNN) -- Flights from Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport were temporarily grounded for several hours Monday by the discovery of fuel that did not meet international standards, Israeli media reported.
Flights resumed early Tuesday with the Ha'aretz daily newspaper reporting planes were being sent to the nearby coastal cities of Larnaca in Cyprus and Antalya in Turkey for refuelling.
No immediate explanation was given for what caused the polluted fuel, but flights were delayed for up to four hours while airport officials dealt with the emergency.
Ha'aretz reported the faulty fuel, which was supplied to all airlines at the facility, contained dirt and may have been watered down.
Ben Gurion, which is just outside Tel Aviv, is considered the "gateway to Israel." It is Israel's only international airport and the busiest civil airport in the Middle East.
Ha'aretz reported that an airport service company tested the fuel supplied to the airlines and found it to be faulty.
The paper said some of the faulty fuel had been used on flights before the problem was discovered.
Israel's national carrier, El Al, delayed at least five flights out of Israel for late Monday.
The destinations of those flights included New York, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Paris and Toronto.
Two of the El Al flights were operating under code share agreements with U.S. carriers Delta Air Lines and Continental.
Other airlines -- including Thai Airways -- were also forced to temporarily cancel their flights because of the problem.
A statement from El Al late Monday said routine tests on the fuel "showed that the fuel delivered to all airlines taking off from Ben Gurion Airport is polluted and does not meet the international standards."
"The fuel companies, therefore, decided not to deliver fuel to flights taking off from Ben Gurion until clean fuel can be delivered," the airline said. "We are doing all possible efforts to assure delivery of usable fuel to our flights."
