In-flight Movie Incites Passenger’s Violent Tantrum
Jeff Edwards February 25, 2016
El Al flight seen at the airstrip at the Ben Gurion International Airport. August 05, 2013. Photo by Moshe Shai/FLASH90
Objections over the “immodest” nature of the in-flight entertainment led an El Al passenger to express his dissatisfaction by way of a violent rampage.
An El Al flight bound for Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) from Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW) was disrupted by a violent outburst when an unidentified 36-year-old Israeli man became incensed by what he deemed an “immodest” in-flight movie. The passenger reportedly managed to destroy two video screens showing the objectionable content before crew members and other passengers were able to subdue him.
The flyer was arrested when the flight landed at TLV. Israeli television station Channel 2 News reported that the passenger detained by police is a resident of Beit Shemesh, an ultra-Orthodox enclave near Jerusalem.
“In the course of an El Al flight from Warsaw to Tel Aviv, the passenger ran wild and damaged the plane’s equipment,” El Al officials said in a statement to local media. “El Al will not tolerate violent behavior of any kind in the course of its flights, and therefore the police were called.”
The film that enraged the flyer to the point of aggressively attempting to prevent its screening onboard the flight was reportedly a docudrama about the 2004 60 Minutes report that eventually led to the ouster of then-CBS anchorman Dan Rather. The movie Truth staring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for language and brief images of nude photographs.
In November of last year, El Al officials drew criticism for stopping an in-flight movie in an attempt to avoid offending ultra-Orthodox passengers on a flight from Moscow Domodedovo Airport (DME) to TLV. In this case, flight attendants stopped showing the PG-13 rated romantic comedy Aloha starring Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper. The film had played for about 20 minutes before the cabin crew bowed to persistent complaints and stopped the showing.
[Photo: Moshe Shai/FLASH90]
Oh dear- what did the "ultra-Orthodox" not find appealing this time? Have there been some b00bs showing on screen or anything 'scandalous' like this?
Just another in a long list of reasons to avoid El Al.
Good thing they did not show Yossi & Jaggar he really would have been mad
LY used to have sections where the IFE could be obscured. Do they not still do this?