Now we all know Airlines have had it hard recently due to Sept 11th etc, El Al is no exception and in these bleak times lets just say there aren’t too many people travelling to Israel, major exception being the devout and the odd businessman. So when I decided to book a one-year trip to Israel for study purposes EL Al was my first and only choice.
Why you ask? Well the security is the toughest in the world, most airlines have the usual X-ray scan and a woman at the desk checking the passports and tickets. From time to time you may get body checked.
El Al vets every passenger 24 hrs before they depart and profiles them accordingly. You have to check in three hours before flight departure. Three sets of security officers ask you questions before the flight such as ‘did you pack your own bags?’, ‘have your bags left your sight at any
time?’, if you look remotely suspicious you’ll get receive the full monty and a barrage of questions asking reasons why or with whom you are travelling to Israel, where you’re staying, even family history. I know one guy who they wouldn’t let fly back from Israel because he couldn’t verify everything he was saying. (He made it home on the next flight!)
World expert security personnel, state of the art bomb detectors, sophisticated machinery all make certain that no unpleasant elements enter anywhere near the airplane. Flight departures are delayed on occasion if any baggage loads the plane unaccompanied by its owner, in case of a bomb. At Heathrow the largest policemen you’ll ever see walk around on every arrival and departure carrying sub-automatic machine guns and pistols, all wearing body vests. In Ben-Gurionairport, Tel Aviv, there are snipers on the roof, solders, and armed uniformed and plain clothed policeman everyhere.
The security doesn’t end there. Two armed sky marshals in plain-clothes fly in passenger seats on El Al flights - a last line of defence should the airline's ground security systems fail. In addition, El Al cockpits are sealed off by two virtually impenetrable doors, which are not opened during flight. "In Israel nobody can enter the cockpit -- never, never, never, never! …It's impossible by force or by threats to enter the cockpit, and it's been like that for 20 years." This is a quote by the former national police chief Assaf Hefetz.
El Al is probably the only airline that places all of its cargo in decompression chambers before take off. Many planes have been blown up with explosives set off by a barometric fuse that is sensitive to altitude.
It has also been reported that only El Al passenger planes have decoy flares that are released in the event of a surface to air missile attacking the plane. It was only 6 months ago that a rocket in Kenya attacked an El Al plane, how you can miss a sitting plane with a rocket launcher only G-d can tell you, but maybe so can Israeli security.
That’s enough about the security. Travelling back from Israel I was sitting at the departure lounge when the thought dropped into my mind that not all my luggage had been checked in, and that one suitcase was probably still sitting in the minibus taxi that dropped me off at the airport. Luckily I still had taxi phone number, after calming him down (he was still parked outside the airport waiting for me to collect my luggage). I told the El-Al representatives my problem. Now usually it is very difficult to leave an airport once you’ve checked in, (especially in Israel) but there were so courteous and so efficient in shepherding me to the airport entrance and then escorting me back to the departure lounge, it was such a relief. My bag was even over weight by some 25kg and they halved the fine for me there and then. Excellent service is all I can say. (I tipped the taxi driver for waiting of course!)
On board, El-Al have the latest Boeing 777 planes, with each seat its own LCD TV screen with many of the latest films and a good choice of radio. Food was edible. They offered me Tea and coffee on numerous occcassions. Toilets clean, staff normal - I really don’t like overtly happy air-staff who are on happy pills. Leg room was fine, seats comfortable, pillow and blanket included... Only downside is prices are a tad dear.
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Nice to hear of someone taking security so seriously - although I am unlikely to ever need to fly to any of their destinations.
Sue
flyingIbi 21.06.2003 20:41
I entered an El Al cockpit three years ago on a flight from Munich to Tel Aviv! In Munich they are the main user of the high security area! That's a special terminal where polticians and famous persons check in!!
magicloudz 07.05.2003 16:05
Wasn't it the El Al check-in desk in Los Angeles where there were problems shortly after 11.09? I may be wrong location, but the security certainly sounds second to none. Whether I would want to go to any of the destinations, however, is another matter:) -Jon
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Advantages: Security, service, polite and understanding staff, good piloting Disadvantages: Prices are a bit high, sometimes flights tend to be depart late
shift_19 11.01.2008 (11.01.2008)
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Review of EL AL
Advantages: Security, service, polite and understanding staff, good piloting Disadvantages: Prices are a bit high, sometimes flights tend to be depart late
shift_19 11.01.2008 (11.01.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of EL AL
May 4th, 2003
(May 9th, 2003)
very helpful by (92%):
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