Moments of anxiety were experienced this week by passengers on Turkish Airlines flight number 20 from Istanbul to Beijing, after it was forced to retrace its steps - due to a malfunction - to the runway, immediately after taking off. The Rebbe of Shatz, Rabbi David Moskowitz, was also on the flight.
Minutes before the return takeoff, the flight was grounded again due to a similar malfunction. After many hours, it was decided to change planes, and the flight took off – for the third time – this time without any problems, en route to its destination – China.
Among the passengers on the flight was the Rebbe of Ashdod, chairman of the SKS Mehadrin kashrut training system. The Rebbe was accompanied by a team of supervisors and they were on their way to supervise food factories in China. According to the supervisors, the tension among the passengers was great.
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""This is an unpleasant situation, to say the least," they said. "There were people who started shouting, some who asked for a drink of water, and there were also a number of extreme reactions from passengers who panicked excessively. We prayed as believing Jews and, thank God, this story ended without incident.".
""The work of supervision around the world involves quite a few trials," said the Rebbe. "Indeed, the tension among the passengers was evident, even among the supervisors, the elders with large families. However, thanks to the prayers that broke the sky, the problems were resolved and at the end of the day the plane took off for its destination smoothly.".
The investigation revealed that the source of the malfunction was the steering system of the Boeing 777. The system, which has been recognized as efficient and sophisticated to this day, has recently come under criticism due to repeated malfunctions discovered in the aircraft. .
