As a result of the surprising Benjamin Netanyahu-Abd al-Fattah al-Burhan meeting earlier this month, an Israeli based aircraft flew non-stop from Kinshasa, DRC to Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport by flying over Sudan for the first time.
– Other planes have used route but were never registered as “Israeli.”

By Itay Blumenthal

An Israeli plane made history this weekend by becoming the country’s first-ever aircraft to fly through Sudanese airspace, as it traveled to Tel Aviv from Kinshasa.

The plane took off from Israel early last week for the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo and made its return to Ben-Gurion Airport in the skies over Sudan.

An untitled Bombardier Challenger aircraft is what made the historic flight. – Photo: Aero Icarus/Wikimedia

The flight comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Sudanese interim leader Abd al-Fattah al-Burhan in Uganda earlier this month. Burhan said his country would now allow Israeli planes – with the exception of flag carrier El Al – to use its airspace.

The plane does not have an Israeli license number but is hangared at Ben-Gurion Airport.

In the past, there have been several cases of planes flying either to or from Israel using Sudanese airspace, but they all had to stop over at Amman or another destination so that the flight would not be registered as Israeli.

According to the plane’s log, it took off from Israel to Congo on Monday evening, using a route that passed over the Suez Canal, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, on a flight that took a little less than 7 hours.

The flight path for the Israeli plane that flew over Sudan – Ynet [unattributed]

“The meeting was held without conditions and was coordinated by Washington. The results of the meeting will be announced soon, first and foremost improving the economy. The government will examine the issue of cooperation and then update Israel,” he said.

Sudan’s interim leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. – Photo courtesy: Kremlin.ru

Sudan is a Muslim country in northeastern Africa, with a population of more than 43 million. It does not have diplomatic relations with Israel although pundits believe that by establishing a relationship with Israel and ending its diplomatic isolation, the Sudanese leader aims to help his country go through a process of modernization.

View original Ynet publication at:
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rkQG0n8mI

ISRAEL

‘as a light unto the nations’