Originally Posted by
shuly
Here's what I don't understand. The flights in question are LY002, due to land 11:40 on Friday; and LY008, due to land 15:00. Shabbat starts a little after 16:00; surely no religious passenger caring about shabbat would even dream of taking LY008, unless they were spending the weekend at Ben Gurion Airport. But even with the noon arrival of 002, I can't see what these people were thinking: landing at 11:40, door opens at noon, about one hour for immigration and waiting for luggage, then a 30-60 minute ride to Jerusalem or wherever, and they're home just two hours before shabbat. In other words, even a not-very-rare two hour delay would have caused them to "desecrate shabbat". Why do they insist on taking these flights?
When I have to be somewhere 7 time zones away, I make sure to leave enough time for the trip. I would never consider arriving two hours before an important meeting. Let alone an obligation that is life-and-death, as keeping the shabbat seems to be for some. Why do they take these risks?
Shuly
Indeed, no religious Jew would be on LY008. On the other hand, Shabbat started here at 16:17 and LY002 was scheduled to land at 11:40. That leaves 4.5 hours + 18 minutes :-)
Only someone who has flown on Thurs night and came in 5 hours late and had to beat the Shabbat clock will never again fly Thur night. Happened to me once from AMS about 15 years ago and I will not fly any longer where my flight is not scheduled to land at least 12 hours before Shabbat. But that is hindsight and wisdom learned. I would bet that out of the 80+ religious people stuck, most had never had such an experience and most will never fly again with only a 5 hour buffer.