Flights were delayed and hundreds of suitcases were stranded overnight after the luggage-checking system at Ben Gurion International Airport broke down late Wednesday, forcing Ben Gurion security staff to to check luggage manually — something that hasn’t been done for years.
The problem was discovered at around midnight. By midday Thursday, an army of maintenance, technical and computer teams who had spent the night working on a miracle had managed to make it happen.
Just 400 pieces of luggage were stranded at the airport, and a range of morning flights to destinations across the European continent had been delayed. But 15,000 ‘night flight’ travelers had departed on time, and the 50,000 other passengers who were set to travel during the day on Thursday were able to do so without fears of more delays.