Dubai: A Saudi pilot has refuted claims by a TV station that the Turkish authorities yesterday had refused to allow two private planes to land in Istanbul.
The station did not mention the reasons for the alleged rejection, but said that it could be linked to the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2.
“No aircraft can take off from the departure airport unless it has a permit to cross international airspace, a permit to enter the airspace of the country to which it is flying and a permission to land at the airport,” Captain Ali Al Jasser posted on his twitter account.
“Stop concocting lies to fool those with no knowledge about the profession.”
The pilot also refuted the claim that the rules applied to civil aircraft and not to private planes.
“There is no difference between commercial and private flights. I worked with private planes and I am now in the commercial flying sector and there are no differences,” he posted.
The claims about the planes were made amid a deepening mystery about Khashoggi’s fate of.
A joint Saudi-Turkish team has launched an investigation to uncover the mystery surrounding his disappearance while media have been engaged in an ominous war of narratives shrouded in speculations and allegations.
