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Praying man kicked off United flight
WABC out of New York is reporting that an Orthodox Jewish man who had been praying while a United Airlines flight was boarding was kicked off after he wouldn't sit down.As the story goes, the man boarded the flight and moved back to the lav to pray, which as doctrine dictates, can't be interrupted. After flight attendants asked him to sit down and he repeatedly didn't respond, they summoned a security guard to escort him off the plane.
I can see how standing up during pushback can be a security issue, but is it really necessary to kick the guy off for such a short delay? According to one of the witnesses on the flight, the ritual was only supposed to take two minutes.
But the best part about the article on ABC 7 is how they try to suggest it had something to do with religious or racial profiling. They make sure to point out that the man "wore a full beard, a black hat and a long black coat" and that he was "carrying a religious book". Look out! Those rascals with religious books are dangerous!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Friar Yid Apr 18th 2008 5:51PM
I read it more as "the flight attendants should have known from his clothes that he wasn't a Muslim terrorist about to kill everyone." But it's possible it was intended the other way, as well.
Kent Wien Apr 18th 2008 9:01PM
Failure to comply with a crewmembers instructions is enough to get anyone kicked off a flight while at the gate.
Ryan Apr 19th 2008 10:38AM
He has the right to pray in the flight (I've never seen any thing saying that you can't pray into an airplane) but he should have pray earlier. The witnesses are correct too, they can't delay the plane just because someone is praying into the bathroom. But I think they're wrong kicking him off the United Airlines.
It doesn't seem any kind of racism for me, but who wrote the article do it seems like....
Jim Apr 20th 2008 11:46PM
I respect this guy's right to pray, but I don't think a person has the right to delay takeoff, even for two minutes. He has the right to pray, but all of the passengers and flight crew have the right not to be disrupted due to his praying. Why couldn't he pray while he was waiting to board the plane, or pray on the plane from his seat?
Also, if he holds up the flight for two minutes, isn't that potentially holding up not just his flight, but all the other flights in line behind that flight?