After narrowly escaping Israeli air strikes, Lebanese mother Tanaz Agha shared a picture taken from her plane window as she flew out of Beirut. "Proud to be a Lebanese who can travel on my national airline in a time of war," the 46-year-old says she told her friends on social media. As Israel ramped up air strikes against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah two weeks ago, most airlines stopped flying to the country.
National carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) remains the only carrier still serving Beirut despite the mounting risks and past hits on the runways. Agha and her daughters, aged 11 and 13, were on their way to the airport when an Israeli air strike pounded the capital's adjacent southern suburbs on September 27, killing Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah. The ordeal left her deeply shaken.
It "was an extremely horrifying experience", said Agha, adding she had expected to find the departure lounge in chaos. But instead airport employees comforted her when she broke down in tears. "Most of the staff have family in those areas.
You could hear them receiving calls. You could see their eyes full of tears," she said. As her plane took off for Cyprus, Agha snapped a picture of the Lebanese cedar on the airplane's winglet and declared her admiration on social media.
"That same airplane will bring that same crew back into a war zone in a few hours," she said. "What a nation, what a people, what an airline." Agha is just one of many Lebanese singing the praises of the company.
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