Well this is an unusual reason for a long haul flight to be delayed…
EL AL flight delayed over “Free Palestine” stickers
140 suitcases were left behind on a recent long haul EL AL flight, after it was discovered that they had “Free Palestine” stickers on them, triggering a security concern and delay.
This incident happened on Monday, February 16, 2026, and involves EL AL flight LY6, scheduled to operate from Los Angeles (LAX) to Tel Aviv (TLV). The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was supposed to start the journey at 2PM, arriving in Tel Aviv the following afternoon at 1:45PM.
According to passengers, around the flight’s departure time, the crew announced a delay of 25 minutes due to something related to checked bags, without expanding on that further. However, it was then revealed that there was a more serious issue involving luggage, which caused the delay to stretch on.
Later on, the captain announced that 140 suitcases had been removed from the plane after “Free Palestine” stickers were discovered on them. Each bag was required to undergo individual security screening, to rule out the presence of explosives.
These checks took longer than expected, and ultimately the airline decided to depart without the luggage, rather than extending the delay further. In the end, roughly 140 passenger suitcases were left behind at the airport.
During the delay, some passengers reportedly shouted in protest. Another traveler said his wife’s suitcase contained a dress intended for their daughter’s wedding. To these complaints, the purser reportedly replied “it’s better to arrive safely without the suitcase than the alternative.”
After landing in Israel, many passengers received notifications that their luggage had not been transported on the flight, and that the bags would be sent on the next flight out of Los Angeles.
Presumably some airport workers were behind this
Understandably, passengers on this EL AL flight wonder how these stickers could’ve been placed on bags. One passenger asked “how did they allow this employee to put the stickers on?” and “if they allowed him to do that, how can they ensure that next time something won’t be put inside the suitcases?”
Indeed, it seems like a sure bet that a worker at the airport decided to put these stickers on the bags, some time between when the bags were checked and when they were loaded on the plane.
Regardless of how one feels about the conflict, this kind of behavior isn’t acceptable. People working at airports are there to make operations run as smoothly as possible, and not to sabotage them. EL AL is known for having the most extreme security measures of any airline in the world, so of course having 140 “Free Palestine” stickers on bags — clearly a coordinated effort — was going to raise some concerns, and was going to be taken seriously.
I’m not surprised by EL AL’s response to the incident, and hopefully they’re able to figure out who did this.
Bottom line
On a recent EL AL flight from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv, 140 suitcases were found to have “Free Palestine” stickers on them. Since this was clearly a coordinated effort, this ended up causing some security concerns, including all bags with stickers needing to be screened for explosives.
After an extended delay, it was determined that it would take a lot longer to screen all the bags, so all 140 suitcases with the stickers ended up being left behind. That left many passengers frustrated.
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