Israeli Passenger Lives Through Emergency Landing in Tehran

An Israeli passenger on a plane en route to Bucharest who found himself in Tehran during an unplanned landing for an onboard medical emergency said that his first thought was that his life was over.

Bar Azoulay, an Israeli citizen, was forced to spend 34 hours in Tehran, after a passenger on the plane suffered cardiac arrest and the plane diverted to the capital of the Islamic Republic to get emergency treatment.

B’chasdei Shamayim, Azoulay’s Israeli identity did not become an issue, and he was able to complete his trip to attend his sister’s wedding without further incident. But those 34 hours went by with no small amount of anxiety.

Once in Bucharest, he told News 2 in an interview that “I realized that I was going to land in Iran and started to run over in my head various very difficult scenarios,” Azoulay said. “My first thought was that my life was over and my trip had ended, and my sister had to get married in three days and I thought that I would not get there, and I was very sure that they would take me and I would not return to the plane.”

“After we landed, a medical team boarded the plane, and I just hoped that they would not take us down [to the airport]. I told myself that even if that happened, I would not leave the plane safely, not alone; I am afraid to imagine this situation again. They did CPR on the floor of the plane and everyone saw it. Those 34 hours I went through felt like an eternity.”