A flight from Israel to Ukraine was delayed on Tuesday, 17 Elul, as a group of eight people heading to Uman were removed from the flight after creating a significant disturbance before boarding.
The Ukraine International Airlines flight to was scheduled to take off from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv at 3:00PM, enroute to Kiev, but was delayed for three hours.
The group of eight arrived at the entrance to the plane, and two of them were apparently drunk. According to reports, one of them complained of feeling ill, prompting the flight crew to refuse to permit them to board. Another member of the group began cursing and confronting the crew.
According to reports, the group had created a scene at the airport; playing, singing, shouting wildly and blowing shofars, while holding a bottle of Arak whiskey.
An airport manager summoned police, and the disorderly bunch physically assaulted police too. The plane’s crew, including the pilots who left their positions when they heard the uproar, asked the police to take the passenger and his friends off the plane.
Compounding the problem, due to the fact that these passengers were removed from the plane, their suitcases also needed to be be removed. The unloading process took a long time, causing the flight to take off about three hours later.
“Every year there are many incidents with passengers traveling to Uman,” a senior official at Ben-Gurion Airport told Ynet. He said there are many people who want to go to Uman for Rosh Hashana and come to the airport without tickets, asking for ‘handouts’ from other passengers. Quite a few of them arrive at the flight at the last minute as if “they were on the bus.”
The official added “there are passengers who arrive to the plane drunk, or even drugged; and there are those who arrive with plastic bags instead of suitcases.”
It is important to note that for Rosh Hashana, tens of thousands of people arrive at Uman, most of whom behave in a proper manner, but naturally the few cases attract attention and cause an unfortunate Chilul Hashem.
In another story published on YWN on Wednesday, a travel agent in Israel defrauded THOUSANDS out of their money – handing them fake tickets to Uman. Read that story here.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
“אֵלֶּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר הֶעֱלוּךָ לאֶרֶץ אומן”
I like the fact that some leaders scream about Whatsapp and are quiet on Uman. Perhaps some people are serious in Avodas Hashem by going there, but a lot of people are going to have a good time.
And they’re going to Uman for what purpose?
I think it is understood by anyone capable of rational thinking that rowdiness, drinking, oppositional behavior, etc. are not true characterizations of Chassidus, and there is no reference, even directly that Reb Nachman was tolerant of such disgrace.
To me, it seems clear that the motivation to go to Uman Rosh Hashanah for these individuals and those like them have nothing whatsoever to do with Chassidus, teshuvah, or even anything that is related to kedusha. Rather, it is the crowd mentality that becomes associated with the most banal of human character. That is not appropriate for a kever of a tzaddik, sand deserves the public’s disdain.
If I were in Israeli government, I would place a travel ban on these clowns, that they cannot travel to Uman for years to come.
When Moshiach comes and we are all in Eretz Yisrael, will a bunch of drunks want to fly to Boro Park?
Uman created a lot of Chillul Hashem. The Gedolim should put a ban on it
To Huju: While drunkenness is an occasional issue among visitors to BP and Willy, there has never been any recorded incident of public intoxication by those flying into Crown Heights/Eastern Parkway. Its purely a Breslov and poorly behaved litvish issue