El Al airplane
El Al airplanePhoto: Moshe Shai / Flash90

An El Al flight departing Ben Gurion Airport last week almost took off with no security agents on board.

The airliner has launched an internal investigation regarding the incident.

According to Channel 2, the airline’s regulations specify that a number of security agents must be on board every flight. However, for reasons still being investigated, the security agents were not informed of the location and departure time of the flight.

The crew did not notice that security men were missing and the flight, which was headed toward Paris, began taxiing toward the runway ahead of takeoff.

It was then that a crew member noticed that there were no security agents and the plane immediately turned back to receive them.

Regulations were reportedly updated and instructions to crews were refreshed following the incident.

El Al told Channel 2 in response that it does not speak about security matters.