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Beirut Plane Departure Aborted Due To Technical Difficulties

The aircraft had an issue with its speedometer but was able to return to service this morning.

Published

3 years ago

July 28, 2023

Nour Nasir

beirut plane departure aborted due to technical difficulties

Middle East Airlines

A plane departing from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport had to abort its takeoff on Thursday following a decision by the pilot. The aircraft didn’t leave the tarmac but had to abandon takeoff while already accelerating down the runway.

The emergency was confirmed by a spokesman from the Lebanese travel agency Nakhal, which leases the aircraft to Middle East Airlines (MEA). An MEA source also explained that passengers were in no danger and rejected takeoffs are a standard safety practice if a pilot suspects mechanical failure.

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“Typically, during a takeoff phase, the captain and co-pilot signal each other when they reach 100 knots (185 km/h) to confirm that their instruments are synchronized. It was probably at this point that they detected the problem with the airspeed indicator, prompting the captain to abort the takeoff,” the pilot explained. “At this speed, braking may have been hard on the passengers, but the risks at this stage are under control”.

The Nakhal spokesman revealed that one person had fainted during the incident, but passengers were otherwise unharmed. Everyone involved was redirected to another flight to complete their journey.

Related Topics:Aviation Lebanon Middle East Airlines

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Samsung And Spotify Offer Free Premium Deal In MENA

Nearly seven in ten streams in the region come from 18-to-34-year-olds — the audience Samsung is hoping to entice into its ecosystem.

Published

6 days ago

August 7, 2026

Nour Nasir

Samsung

Samsung has announced a partnership with Spotify spanning the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye, bundling Spotify Premium with select devices across its ecosystem. The headline offer — up to four months of Premium for free — is a first for the region.

Customers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Türkiye who buy any OLED or 98-inch television, or any Galaxy S or Z series mobile device, get four months of Spotify Premium. The offer, tiered by market and device, is available at retail and on Samsung.com, and redeemed through the Samsung Promotion and Samsung Members apps.

For Samsung, the strategy is less about free music than about lock-in. The Korean tech giant’s pitch is continuity: a track starts on a Galaxy smartphone through Galaxy Buds on the commute, moves to a Samsung TV and soundbar in the living room, and stays controllable from a Galaxy Watch. The more seamlessly music travels between those devices, the harder it becomes to swap any one of them for a rival’s.

“Technology should bring people closer to the things they love, and few things connect people the way music does,” said Omar Saheb, Regional VP of Marketing and Online Business at Samsung Electronics MENA. The partnership, he added, gives customers “a genuine reason to choose Samsung for the experience, not only the product”.

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For subscribers, Premium brings the usual package: ad-free listening, offline downloads, richer audio quality on Galaxy Buds and Samsung sound devices, and Jam, which lets friends build a shared queue.

“At Spotify, we are always working to make every listening moment feel more personal, meaningful, and worth it,” said Rami Jamal, Head of Partnerships at Spotify for South Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

The demographics go a long way to explaining the strategy. Across MENA, Türkiye, and Pakistan, nearly seven in ten Spotify streams come from listeners aged 18 to 34, according to the company — precisely the audience Samsung wants inside its hardware ecosystem before buying habits harden.