Alarming footage taken from the cockpit of a British Airways flight over the Middle East captured Iranian-launched missiles soaring nearby — suggesting Iran failed to make sure the airways were clear of international civilian flights before they filled the sky with hundreds of explosives.
The clip was filmed by the pilot of the Dubai-bound BA flight Tuesday evening, and showed what is clearly a volley of recently fired ballistic missiles rising into the night sky on their way to Israel.
All the missiles safely cleared the airliner — but the footage showed just how close Iran came to immediately setting off an international incident by firing rockets into the skies without first making sure they were clear of civilian air traffic from across the world.
Airlines scrambled to divert their flights from the skies over the Middle East as the Iranian missiles started flying without warning around 7:30 p.m. local time.
Flight trackers from the region soon showed a gaping clearing in the airspace between Iran and Israel that has persisted hours after the barrage ended — with planes flying north and south of the entire Middle East to avoid the possibility of future missile fire.
Airports in Iran, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Israel, also immediately began suspending flights in and out of their airports, according to BNE.
Many planes already in the air were diverted to Cyprus and Egypt.
Some airlines have even suspended routes to Israel and Iran altogether as the region is poised to explode into all out war.
Lufthansa Group — which operates Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, and Swiss Air — suspended all flights to Beirut until November 30, flights to Tel Aviv until October 31, and flights to Tehran until October 14, Fortune reported.
KLM, out of the Netherlands, has suspended flights to Tel Aviv through the end of the year.
Those cancellations come after the European Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency — which regulates air safety for Europe — recommended on Saturday that airlines avoid the airspace between Lebanon and Israel, citing “an overall intensification of air strikes and degradation in the security situation.”
Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon on Monday to begin rooting out the terrorist group Hezbollah, after a year of sporadic rocket volleys back and forth.
Iran responded with the Tuesday missile barrage — which ultimately proved to be largely ineffective, as only two Israelis were wounded, and the only death was a Palestinian in the West Bank killed by falling debris from an intercepted missile.
Nevertheless, Israel has vowed to respond, leading to heightened fears of an all out war in the region.