Last January Rabbi Lombard guided me through flights to and from Israel with the following principle: if west bound, from shkia to netz assur to cohanim from netz to shkia mutr. Since I have moved to South Africa. My daughter is getting married in EY and most of the flights the travel agents are offering leave at times like 1555 or 1615. I assume that a cohen cannot fly on such flights for two reasons: 1)that is the time the plane leaves the gate, but the actual takeoff may easily be later and memeila after shkia 2) any small delay would lead to a nightime departure over the beis hakvaros. because it is a huge expense to fly other routes I felt it would be proper to ask if this info is still up to date. Thanks, Sincerely Shimon Brodie
Answer:
I consulted with Rabbi Lombard, and he said that for South Africa flights leaving from Israel there is currently no concern, since flights leave going south rather than north.
For flights coming in from South Africa, the principle remains that flights coming in at night will be problematic; flights coming in at 16:00 should still be fine.
Please ask again if you need further details, and a hearty mazal tov for the forthcoming wedding!
With your response I found a link to an excellent article on your site. There it is stated:
“Flights with stopovers don’t carry coffins unless they pick them up on the way, so stopovers in any destination in Europe are fine, except France”.
I assume this means El Al flights. I am currently booked on an AirFrance flight from Paris to TLV. Any significant chshash of tumas mes?
The problem is not only with coffins on the flight, but even with the graves on the ground.
Please see our article on the subject for further details.
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