A Special Visitor to Detroit Metro

This morning I was checking the Michigan Planespotting group on Facebook and I saw that Detroit was going to get a special visitor today.  I'm not sure if this is the first time that an El Al plane has visited Detroit but I do know that it is fairly rare.

 I wasn't going to go at first.  We are still under the quarantine but I figured this counted as an outdoor activity and it was highly unlikely that there would be anyone near me.  And if I saw a group where I normally go spotting, I wouldn't go.

 There wasn't a group there, so I stopped and I glad I did.

 This is the first time I caught an El Al flight.  I think they started service to Chicago recently, so I might have a chance to catch them there when all the dust settles.  I'm not sure how long it will take for the dust to settle though.

 El Al is the Israeli flag carrier and started with a flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv in 1948.  El Al is Hebrew for "skywards".  Since then, it has grown to serve over 50 destinations in and out of Israel.  They have a fleet of 42 aircraft and they are all Boeing.

 El Al is also unique in that it is the only commercial airline that has it aircraft equipped with anti-missile systems.  And they are also considered the most secure airline in the world.  They have very stringent security measures both on the ground and in the air (although many of their security measures are invisible to the public).  While there have been several attempted hijackings, only one flight was ever actually hijacked and that resulted in no fatalities.

 This particular flight originated in Tel Aviv, Israel and was carrying much needed medical supplies for the area.

 I don't normally take this many pictures of one plane but with coronavirus, flights have gone down dramatically.   Usually there is a flight about every minute coming into Detroit, today it was about every 5 minutes.

While it was nice to get out planespotting, it still didn't feel normal.  It was eerily calm around the airport.  I seriously hope this thing ends soon.