El Al Miami flight turns back to Israel after 4.5 hours in the air

Passengers on El Al flight LY017 from Tel Aviv to Miami experienced an unusual incident on Tuesday morning when the aircraft returned to Israel after spending approximately four and a half hours in the air. The flight had already departed Ben Gurion Airport after a delay of nearly four hours when the crew detected a technical malfunction. The decision was made to abort the flight and return to Israel. LY017 was scheduled to depart Ben Gurion at 00:15 but did not take off until 04:12. After flying for approximately four and a half hours, the aircraft turned around and began its return to Israel. The decision to return to Ben Gurion rather than divert to an intermediate airport was based partly on the airline's ability to handle the situation at its home base, where El Al also has an aircraft hangar and maintenance facilities.