Ryanair Apologizes For Flight Attendant Calling Israel ‘Palestine’

A low-cost airline Ryanair apologized for an “innocent mistake” after a flight attendant on the flight from Italy to Israel announced the destination as “Palestine,” sparking outrage among Jewish passengers. 

"All passengers are requested to return to their seats as the plane is about to land in Tel-Aviv in occupied Palestine," the flight attendant said, repeating the sentence several times in English and Italian.

The passengers then asked the flight attendant to apologize. According to them, she refused to do so and accused passengers of endangering the safety of the flight, threatening to call the police after landing on one of the passengers, who tried to photograph her as the attendant wasn't wearing a name tag.

Following the backlash on social media, Ryanair told Newsweek it regrets the incident.

"A junior crew member on this flight from Bologna to Tel Aviv [10 June] made a routine descent PA mistakenly saying 'Palestine' instead of 'Tel Aviv,'" the airline said.

"This was an innocent mistake with no intent and was immediately corrected and apologized for by the senior crew member on board," the company claimed.

This is not the first time that the company has been involved in incidents with Israeli passengers, particularly on Berlin-Tel-Aviv flights.