On Friday evening an Easyjet aircraft with 184 peopleĀ on board traveling from Gatwick to Larnaca ran into bad weather and the crew was forced to make a landing at the airport of Dalaman in Turkey.
According to Cyprus Mail Online the plane managed “to first land for a few minutes” on the ground at Dalaman, and then it had to divert to Athens before completing the flight to Paphos, where passengers were transferred to Larnaca by bus. The reason being for the fiasco is thatĀ Turkey does not recognize Cyprus and authorities would not give permission for the plane to fly directly from Dalaman, Turkey to Cyprus.
Also reported byĀ SigmaliveĀ is that passengers onboard claimedĀ that the aircraft was not granted permission to land at the Turkish airport by the authorities because āan issue was raised as to the religious and political beliefs of the passengers.ā
Following the incident, former Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou Markoulli tweeted that the event should be reported to the United Nations, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
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