Jun 28, 2016, 1:42 pm
Last edit by: starflyergold
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starflyergold
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Please note this thread may be moved to the Europe forum shortly
Explosions and gun fire heard at IST airport (28 June 2016)
Jun 29, 2016, 2:22 pm
#106
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 4,734
Newswire: groundstop on all direct US-IST Flights
Just read on a news site that the US has stopped all direct flights between the US and IST until further notice. As this is from a general news, not aviation or travel, site, I'm not sure how accurate their details are.
Jun 29, 2016, 2:30 pm
#107
Community Director Emerita
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Anywhere warm
Posts: 33,742
Jun 29, 2016, 2:55 pm
#108
Moderator, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles & Accor ALL
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: BRU
Programs: TK*G, Accor ALL Platinum
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Reminder: This thread is not about politics but issues affecting all of us as regular travellers passing regularly through the third busiest airport in Europe in the wake of this tragedy.
Turkish politics and other geopolitical musings are better suited to OMNI.
Any posts violating these rules will be deleted and are open to disciplinary action as per FT rules as outlined in the wiki above.
starflyergold
TK forum moderator
Turkish politics and other geopolitical musings are better suited to OMNI.
Any posts violating these rules will be deleted and are open to disciplinary action as per FT rules as outlined in the wiki above.
starflyergold
TK forum moderator
Jun 29, 2016, 3:27 pm
#109
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2014
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Posts: 1,965
I'd like to known the difference between this and BRU attacks, how IST managed to resume flights so soon. Or is it just that the damage wasn't as bad?
Jun 29, 2016, 3:28 pm
#110
Moderator, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles & Accor ALL
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: BRU
Programs: TK*G, Accor ALL Platinum
Posts: 7,586
The Brussels blast happened further into the building in departures and took out a lot of the infrastructure (systems, cables etc.).
Jun 29, 2016, 3:30 pm
#111
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2010
Programs: AA
Posts: 14,730
Location of the damage, possibly the physical damage wasn't as bad, etc. With BRU all the blasts were inside the building. With IST, much of the gunfire and at least one of the blasts was outside the building.
Jun 29, 2016, 3:47 pm
#112
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 120
Hello! My wife and I are supposed to fly through IST to Italy with ~24 hour layovers both ways in September. We had planned to see the city but with the safety concerns I'm having second thoughts. Do any of you think TK would allow for a refund based on the recent attack? I'm TK-Gold if that matters.
Jun 29, 2016, 3:48 pm
#113
Join Date: Jun 2008
Programs: TK*G (E+), IHG Plat Ambassador
Posts: 7,884
Would appreciate if the thread could focus on the immediate impact for travelers scheduled to go through IST rather than the analysis of well the intelligence services perform(ed).
I am booked to travel long-haul through IST on Friday Jul 1. Just tried to rebook onto other carriers. As I booked through Expedia, I was referred from TK to the travel agent who finally informed me that the airline only allows date changes (onto other TK flights) and free refunds.
I am booked to travel long-haul through IST on Friday Jul 1. Just tried to rebook onto other carriers. As I booked through Expedia, I was referred from TK to the travel agent who finally informed me that the airline only allows date changes (onto other TK flights) and free refunds.
Jun 29, 2016, 3:52 pm
#114
Join Date: Jun 2008
Programs: TK*G (E+), IHG Plat Ambassador
Posts: 7,884
Jun 29, 2016, 4:04 pm
#115
Join Date: Dec 2007
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 139
Hello! My wife and I are supposed to fly through IST to Italy with ~24 hour layovers both ways in September. We had planned to see the city but with the safety concerns I'm having second thoughts. Do any of you think TK would allow for a refund based on the recent attack? I'm TK-Gold if that matters.
Jun 29, 2016, 6:14 pm
#116
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Well I learned something from this terrible tragedy-
Total passengers
1 London Heathrow Airport (UK) 74,985,748
2 Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (F) 65,766,986
3 Istanbul Atatürk Airport (T) 61,322,729
4 Frankfurt Airport (G) 61,032,022
Total passengers
1 London Heathrow Airport (UK) 74,985,748
2 Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (F) 65,766,986
3 Istanbul Atatürk Airport (T) 61,322,729
4 Frankfurt Airport (G) 61,032,022
Jun 29, 2016, 10:00 pm
#117
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: KBL
Programs: FB Gold - M&S Gold
Posts: 279
Weird, I am a M&S member and have 2 pending bookings with TK (one next week and one next month) and I did not receive an email about this. I'm not worried about the situation and won't change my travel plans so I don't really care but that's an additional proof of how inconsistent TK can be sometimes.
Jun 30, 2016, 3:10 am
#118
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 36
Last night I arrived from Germany to Istanbul, everything looked same to me, just a little bit more crowd possibly due to cancelled flights a day before.. If I didn't know about the incident, I would think there is a renovation going on in some parts.
Jun 30, 2016, 3:27 am
#119
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Bit of everywhere these days
Programs: TK Elite Plus LH Senator (yes, two *A programs. Go figure)
Posts: 103
So, according to the WSJ, they did enter through the arrivals and one managed to get up to the departures:
Officials working to reconstruct the attack said it started with a suicide blast at a metal detector at the ground-floor entrance to the international terminal. In the ensuing chaos, the officials said, a second bomber raced past the checkpoint and reached the departures area upstairs—a far deeper penetration than the authorities had first reported.
“Four policemen were running after him,” said Hasan Ebubekir Ahmed, a 20-year-old student who was waiting in the departure area for a flight home to Somalia. He said the man was no older than 40, clad in black and carrying a handgun. “The police were shouting at him, ‘Stop! Stop!’ but he just wouldn’t.”
The bomber, eventually wounded by a customs officer’s gunfire, fell to the floor and, as his handgun slid away, detonated a suicide vest in a dramatic scene caught on surveillance video. He died in an orange blaze, killing the customs official in the blast, the officials said.
The third bomber remained outside the airport and blew himself up after an exchange of gunfire with police, killing at least seven people including taxi drivers parked nearby, the officials said.
Officials working to reconstruct the attack said it started with a suicide blast at a metal detector at the ground-floor entrance to the international terminal. In the ensuing chaos, the officials said, a second bomber raced past the checkpoint and reached the departures area upstairs—a far deeper penetration than the authorities had first reported.
“Four policemen were running after him,” said Hasan Ebubekir Ahmed, a 20-year-old student who was waiting in the departure area for a flight home to Somalia. He said the man was no older than 40, clad in black and carrying a handgun. “The police were shouting at him, ‘Stop! Stop!’ but he just wouldn’t.”
The bomber, eventually wounded by a customs officer’s gunfire, fell to the floor and, as his handgun slid away, detonated a suicide vest in a dramatic scene caught on surveillance video. He died in an orange blaze, killing the customs official in the blast, the officials said.
The third bomber remained outside the airport and blew himself up after an exchange of gunfire with police, killing at least seven people including taxi drivers parked nearby, the officials said.
Jun 30, 2016, 4:11 am
#120
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In terms of the operations of the airport's primary carrier and other flights, this airport has bounced back quite well operationally despite this attack.