An Air France Flight had an unexpected stopobver in Damascus, Syria on a flight from Paris to Beirut. Flight 562had apparently run out of fuel and didn't have the funds to pay for it, so naturally they started asking passiengers to check their wallets to see if they had enough cash to pay for more fuel.
Civil unrest in Beirut where they were supposed to be landing, caused the airline to have to find another place to land. They had hoped to land in Amman, Jordan but opted to land in Syria because the plane was low on fuel.
According to an Air France spokesperson Upon landing the flight crew found out that local authorities could not accept a credit card payment and would only take cash.
"As a precaution and in anticipation, the crew asked how much money the passengers had in cash to pay to fill up with fuel," an Air France spokeswoman said to Reuters.
Air France eventually found a way to pay for the fuel without having to borrow from passengers, though they declined to state how much the fuel cost. The flight had 174 passengers on board and 11 crew.
The relationship between France and Syria has been rocky and there was a March decision to suspend flights to Syria because of unrest in the country.
After refueling the plane left Damascus and flew to Cyprus where the crew and passengers spent the night before landing safely in Beirut on Thursday.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
