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Passengers Accuse El Al of “Kidnapping” After “Nightmare” Flight Experience

Passengers on an El Al flight from New York have accused the carrier of kidnap after what’s been termed as a “nightmare” experience on a delayed flight to Tel Aviv. It’s alleged that some were told that they would be allowed to disembark due to religious reasons, but instead the plane departed JFK.

A group of passengers on a recent Tel Aviv-bound El Al flight have accused the carrier of kidnapping after what some have described as a “nightmare” experienceThe Jerusalem Post reports. The incident occurred last Thursday on-board El Al Flight 002, which was scheduled to depart New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) at 6:30 p.m. local time and to arrive in Tel Aviv during the afternoon of the following day.

However, the outlet reports that the flight’s departure from JFK was delayed by five hours because of snow storms and tardy cabin crew.

Just before its departure from JFK, the outlet reports that “religious passengers began to request stridently to disembark since they realized that the flight would continue into the Sabbath on Friday evening, a violation of Jewish religious law.”

This group of travelers, according to the outlet, were intent upon exiting the plane, a point that allegedly delayed the craft further. Others, however, have denied that this confrontation took place, but have offered their criticism of crew in their treatment of those who wanted to disembark for religious reasons.

It seems that, despite being told that the plane would return to the gate, the craft instead departed JFK.

Speaking of the incident, passenger Yehudit Rossler told the outlet, “We were locked in a cage … The people we trusted to take us safely to Israel were in their cabin not talking to us and leaving the flight attendants to talk to us.”

“They kidnapped us from New York. They told us we were going back to the gate, and took off instead,” Rossler added.

Offering his comments on the incident, Gonen Usishkin has said, “I decided to put together an investigative committee that would research all of the events that occurred on flight 002 and all of the witness accounts and arguments. The committee will present its results and recommendations soon and afterwards, I will make decisions on the topic.”

It is alleged that some of the flight’s passengers are planning on taking legal action against the carrier.

[Photo: Getty Images]

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17 Comments
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J S November 26, 2018

Just to add: While we don't have the details, it is likely that the decision to fly to ATH ensured that all of the pax got to TLV earlier than they otherwise would have. The observant pax could leave ATH sometime Saturday night and arrive in TLV shortly thereafter (short flight) as opposed to taking off from JFK very late Saturday night and arriving at TLV late Sunday. Non-observant pax could probably get to TLV on Friday night on a flight from ATH.

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J S November 26, 2018

TLV is definitely open on Saturday. It only closes for one day per year (Yom Kippur). El Al, on the other hand, does not fly on Shabbat (the Jewish sabbath that begins at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday). I get why the observant Jewish pax were upset. That is legitimate. However, there is not enough information here to really lay the blame in the correct place. El Al seems to have ensured that these passengers were not en route during Shabbat (by landing in ATH). Hopefully, the airline made arrangements for non-observant pax to continue on to TLV Friday night. What we don't know is whether a further delay at JFK to deplane the observant pax and off load their luggage might have resulted in all pax being stuck in JFK for 48 hours (until Saturday night), which would have been very frustrating for them. Finally, "kidnapped" is a gross exaggeration (as others have noted).

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mvoight November 26, 2018

For ANY airline to tell passengers they are going back to the gate, and then take off, this would be a BAD thing. The fact this was EL AL is much worse. If there is any airline in the world that should understand Jewish customs and beliefs, this would be the one. thre For the person who mentioned they were surprised the main airport was closed on the Sabbath, that is not correct. The airport is closed. I suspect El Al employees are not working there during Shabat. On the other hand, good luck with finding public transit then.

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MitchR November 24, 2018

It was a terrible customer service situation, but I am more surprised at the commenters who would think that a religious belief is a 'superstition' or something that can be ignored. Whether or not you agree with them they are entitled to practice their religious beliefs. If the flight had taken off as scheduled, no one would have been affected. I am a reformed Jew, thus not as observant, but I have gotten a large serving of intolerance over the years. I had a transcontinental flight that departed at 8 am and arrived at 5 pm. It was during Passover and I had paid for a First Class seat so I called ahead of time to see what the meals were. The CSR told me that it would be hard to find out (really?) and that they couldn't accomodate "non-standard religions." I informed her that I just wanted to know so that I could carry something on if I needed to. It took her all of 30 seconds to pull up the flight and determine that the choices for a sandwich and pizza. The had a vegetarian option of a salad so I took that. No big deal for me but apparently a huge imposition on the CSR. I missed a connection due to an airline screw up (my inbound flight was two hours late, but it was the same equipment as my outbound fight and they had given up my seat even though they knew that I was on the flight). It was the last flight out so I asked for the Gate Agent what to do. She said "Well I guess that you are going to Jew me out of a voucher." The Tel Aviv Airport is closed on Saturdays, Chick Fil A is closed on Sundays. The world is intolerant enough without people being called out as unreasonable, superstitious, or "non-standard."

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kkua November 22, 2018

The crew did the best job balancing the entire plane full of circumstances. The crew was late because the roads in the entire metro NYC area were gridlocked. I know because I was caught in the storm. It snowed in the morning and didn’t warm up fast enough to melt all the snow and became ice. All the double length city busses jack-knifed as they slid all over the iced roads as they made wide turns. Consequently, these busses block every road. The crew were on time leaving their hotel, but was delayed getting to airport because they travel together in a group shuttle service. Once at JFK, they were rushed to get the plane off the ground. The plane and crew were probably due somewhere else before being too out of position. Best choice is to fly and land before sundown close enough to TLV. If the passengers were left behind in NYC, they may not be able to secure themselves another seat until many days later due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays. The passengers may cry foul but I commend the airline staff because they came up with a reasonably good compromise for all stakeholders.