A Delta flight to Israel was forced to turn around and land in Dublin after 6 hours in the air
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- A Delta Air Lines flight to Israel was forced to divert after six hours and land in Dublin.
- An air traffic control recording suggests it was due to a medical emergency.
- Passengers are set to arrive in Israel nearly three hours behind schedule.
A Delta Air Lines flight to Israel turned around and diverted to Dublin, about halfway through its journey.
Flight 234 took off from New York's JFK Airport shortly before 4 p.m. on Monday. It was scheduled to arrive in Tel Aviv around 10 hours later.
However, six hours into the journey, the plane changed course just off England's west coast, according to flight-tracking data.
The Airbus A330 U-turned and crossed the Irish Sea to make for Dublin, where it landed safely.
It appears the plane had to turn around due to a medical emergency, according to an air traffic control recording.
Delta did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside US working hours.
Data from Flightradar24 shows the same plane departed Dublin at 5:25 a.m. local time on Tuesday. That's about two hours after it landed in the Irish capital.
Passengers are expected to arrive in Israel around noon local time, a delay of just under three hours.
The fact that the plane had already crossed the Atlantic Ocean meant the flight had a smaller delay than some past in-flight medical emergencies.
Last April, a British Airways flight from the Bahamas changed course over the ocean and diverted to Gander, in Canada's Newfoundland, due to a medical emergency.
The plane took off again about three hours later, but had to stop in Iceland because the flight crew was about to exceed their working-hour limit.