Emirates, the largest airline in the Middle Easter airline, has banned all pagers and walkie talkies from being taken aboard its aircraft, after an attack targeted the devices in Lebanon.
A few weeks ago, a coordinated attack saw the simultaneous explosion of multiple pagers and walkie talkies in Lebanon, reportedly carried by members of the Hezbollah militant group. Israel has been blamed, but has not claimed responsability for the attack that left at least 37 people dead, including children, and almost 3,000 injured, according to Lebanese officials.
According to Simple Flying, the Hezbollah group has returned to using older technology like pagers and walkie talkies to avoid cell phones being traced or bugged. However, these devices were intercepted during production by Israel, in what the New York Times calls “a modern-day trojan horse” and had their batteries “laced” with explosives, hidden so well, that it was almost undetectable.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the country’s main international airport, Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport, banned all such devices from any flights. Now, Emirates has followed suit with a similar ban.
“All Passengers travelling on flights to, from or via Dubai are prohibited from transporting pagers and walkie talkies in checked or cabin baggage”, the airline wrote on its website on Friday. “Such items found in passengers’ hand luggage or checked baggage will be confiscated by Dubai Police.”
Additionally, as the carrier is still not flying to Beirut, at least until 15 October, passengers trying to get to Lebanon from a different location, but transiting through Dubai, will be refused boarding at departure “until further notice”. Meanwhile, flights to Jordan’s capital Amman were resumed on Sunday, while flights to Iraq and Iran are supposed to resume tomorrow.
Since the breakout of the Israel – Hezbollah conflict this summer, various international airlines have suspended flights to the Middle East. With no resolution in sight and continued bombing in the region, existing suspensions have been extended and more airlines have also decided to halt services.
The European Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have also issued a recommendation for airlines not to operate within the airspaces of Lebanon and Israel at all flight levels until 31 October. “EASA will continue to closely monitor the situation, with a view to assess whether there is an increase or decrease of risks for EU aircraft operators as a result of the evolution of the threat”, the agency said.