YWN has been in contact with the passenger in the article posted Tuesday morning about his experience being kicked off a Delta flight from Ft. Lauderdale and to LaGuardia, who revealed the context of the video taken aboard the airplane.
The passenger, a Chasidic Jew, told YWN that he had traveled along with his wife and daughter to Florida, where he had business to conduct. While his wife and daughter returned to New York on Sunday night, he had some additional meetings to attend on Monday and therefore booked a flight on Delta Flight 1541 with plans to return home that evening.
He says that he boarded the aircraft carrying a single carry-on suitcase and one hat box, both of which were within the allowed size and weight limits per Delta’s baggage rules and limitations.
However, he says that immediately upon sitting down in Row 31, a stewardess and flight crew member came running up to him and said, “You people always have tons of luggage. Why can’t you put the hat box under your feet?”
The Chasidic man calmly and politely replied that he would be more than happy to do so if there wasn’t enough space in the overhead bins. IF the need arises, he told the Delta employees, he was ready and able move the hat box beneath his seat.
The stewardess then left and moved to the rear of the plane, only to return about 2 minutes later enraged. The Chasidic man told YWN that she abruptly and without consent grabbed his carry-on suitcase from the overhead bin and began walking off the aircraft. The Chasidic man immediately told her – politely – that it was his private property and requested it back.
At that point, the stewardess said: “If you don’t let me, I will show you.”
She returned the luggage to the Jewish passenger, who placed it back in the overhead bin and sat down.
Minutes later, the Jewish man was ordered off the plane and escorted by security guards, who held him on the ramp as they began investigating the incident, including questioning other passengers aboard the aircraft.
After an initial investigation, security told the Jewish man that despite their probe finding him to be in the right, the stewardess had threatened to leave the flight if he was allowed back on. Thus, the airline gave him a $500 gift card and a hotel, but did not allow him to fly to New York that evening.
He says that the airline supervisor at the airport was very nice and apologetic to him and understood that he had been the victim of discrimination and unprofessional behavior, but that Delta policies did not allow her to remove the stewardess from the flight, so she had no choice but to simply offer him another flight.
Additionally, he tell YWN that aside for this one stewardess which appeared to be anti-Semitic, all of the other Delta employees treated him with respect and dignity. They acknowledged their shortcomings, promised to properly investigate the matter and tried to help as much as possible.
Attorneys are now involved in the matter, with a letter sent to Delta Airlines demanding an explanation for the stewardess’ unacceptable behavior.
NOTE: A Hasidic passenger filmed this incident and the person thrown off the flight would like to contact you. If you were the person filming this incident, please contact YWN so we can put you in touch with the victim in this incident.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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37 Responses
The most retarded part of this story is making a big public to-do about it.
A big Thank you to the Yeshiva World for trying to help out and also for getting a better clarification of the story. Now we see the truth, he did not come with tons of luggage.
“After an initial investigation, security told the Jewish man that despite their probe finding him to be in the right, the stewardess had threatened to leave the flight if he was allowed back on. Thus, the airline gave him a $500 gift card and a hotel, but did not allow him to fly to New York that evening.”
Many of these lowlife dregs of society stewardesses became empowered during Covid when they would incessantly harass us about our disposable masks not being up to our forehead etc… Suddenly the low wage employees became the boss and were encouraged to Lord over us. Well, it’s time for these nitwits to come back down to reality. Get back to serving drinks and mini potato chip bags to the worthless paying costumers.
The way this stewardess conducted herself, not only should she have been removed from airplane, but should have been removed from airplane during flight whilst in the sky.
To UJM
I agree but also disagree. There are some stories that are pure sensationalism. However in this story the man in question didn’t go to the media and I think the only reason Delta was so apologetic was because such types of stories were publicized.
Oh, so all of a sudden it matches YWNs agenda? Sounds so much different than your article this morning.
On each flight there are at least a dozen other passengers that place more than one iten in the overhead compartment – including jackets, purses etc in addition to the one carry on.
When the airline staff target one person – that raises alarms.
Suppose all the white passengers are allowed to put more than one item in the overhead, but the Black passenger is told to remove his extra items – is that not racist?!
Here a visibly Jewish person was singled out and targeted. Is that not “anti semitism”???
Thank you YWN for the full context and full story.
It’s so ironic to see ywn in the first article with all the comments sticking up for the airline but after this great interview ywn does not even apologies for what they wrote in the first article typcal litvish way of spreading news this passanger was 100% right airline wrong hope he makes a big buck from this story
Now delete the first article and the trash written in the comments.
Journalistic trash.
Remember this rule for the rest of your life: Whenever anyone begins a sentence with the words “you people”, it is never complementary. It is a slur, and a derogatory way of saying ” you are beneath me”. That an employee of a major airline could speak to a customer like this in this day and age is absolutely appalling.
$500 and a hotel night is an insult to be offered, and I wouldn’t accept it. Trust me, this is going to be classified as a hate crime, and the lawyers, with the help of Hashem, will get this chossid A LOT MORE.
security told the Jewish man that […] the stewardess had threatened to leave the flight if he was allowed back on. […] the airline supervisor at the airport [… said] that Delta policies did not allow her to remove the stewardess from the flight
These two statements seem to contradict each other. If the flight attendant was threatening to remove herself from the flight, and the supervisor wanted to remove her from the flight, then the solution was simple: allow the passenger back on the flight, and let the flight attendant make her own decision.
What I think is the supervisor actually said was that Delta policy won’t allow her to cause the flight attendant to leave, because that would leave the flight short-staffed and it would thus have to be canceled altogether. So the flight attendant must be given her way, in the short term, and any discipline applied only afterwards.
“zero tolerance”: How can it be classed as a “hate crime”, when it isn’t even a crime in the first place. Do you have any idea what a “hate crime” means? I don’t think so.
You are allowed one overhead luggage. Not 2. He should have put other piece under seat. Airlines have rules. Don’t like it ? Don’t fly
@Milhouse
(720 ILCS 5/12-7.1) (from Ch. 38, par. 12-7.1)
Sec. 12-7.1. Hate crime.
(a) A person commits hate crime when, by reason of the actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, citizenship, immigration status, or national origin of another individual or group of individuals, regardless of the existence of any other motivating factor or factors, he or she commits assault, battery, aggravated assault, intimidation, stalking, cyberstalking, misdemeanor theft, criminal trespass to residence, misdemeanor criminal damage to property, criminal trespass to vehicle, criminal trespass to real property, mob action, disorderly conduct, transmission of obscene messages, harassment by telephone, or harassment through electronic communications as these crimes are defined in Sections 12-1, 12-2, 12-3(a), 12-7.3, 12-7.5, 16-1, 19-4, 21-1, 21-2, 21-3, 25-1, 26-1, 26.5-1, 26.5-2, paragraphs (a)(1), (a)(2), and (a)(3) of Section 12-6, and paragraphs (a)(2) and (a)(5) of Section 26.5-3 of this Code, respectively.
The fact that the employee used the words “you people”, and further intimidated him by saying “let me do this(remove your luggage), or you’ll be sorry , constitutes intimidation based on race or religion. That’s the law. Had she merely said” Sir, I must insist that you gate-check your bag”, there would have been no problem. Lawyers, please chime in.
domenick00 – would that be your response if the passenger was black and the stewardess was white?
If the white stewdardess overlooked the fact that many white passengers put more than one item in the overhead, but the Black passenger is told to remove his extra items – is that not racist?!
Selective enforcement of rules – depending on who the oassenger is, is racist or antisimetic.
If you took note, the overhead bid was far from crowded. While domenick00 has a point, the slant of the story along with all the vitriolic comments were uncalled for. The clip clearly shows how completely composed the passenger remained. As for the Satmar part, why YWN, was that absolutely necessary to report? These things bring out the worst in us. We’re deep in גלות now with barley a friend in the world! Why add wood to the flames! Their silly post and comments should have just been ignored. Come on YWN, you’re better than that!
In the supermarket express lane for 22 items or less, you watch the checkout lady being easy going and allowing the people in line ahead of you with a few extra items above the 12 limit.
But then the checkout lady refuses to ring you up because you have 13 items – and you realize why you are treated different: because of the color of your skin, or your religion..
Yes technically yoi have an extra item, but that was no problem for the “right kind of folks”, but it’s a problem for you because of WHO YOU ARE.
Doesn’t justify the likening of this incident to Nazism by Satmar. That undermines the holocaust and the great tragedies we went through.
On flights that are projected to have a substantial number of empty seats, the flight attendants know in advance that the overhead bins will have plenty of room and don’t make an issue about passengers putting both their carry-ons in the bin. Here, I suspect the flight attendant knew the plane was full and she anticipated would need all the space and asked the passenger to remove one bag. She probably wanted to avoid delay once additional passengers boarded. You typically hear announcements on the PA system “we are expecting a full flight today so please put one of your bags on the seat in front of you, a request that this passenger and likely others ignored. However, this flight attendant obviously handled the situation poorly and apparently was biased and “selectively” enforced the rule.
This is a crime in itself. As the government is trying to take a 0 tolerance anti Semitic policy, with all the troubles the airlines are facing, they should have walked her right off woth security. What they did was have security take the passenger of setting up more issues. Delta should set a hard stance and make an example of the employee and show their resolve!
domenick00
Please read the entire story without prejudice and then comment. Your comment was discussed already in the original post.
Why does the title say Hasidic and not Chasidic. don’t Jewish ppl pronounce it chasidic
I’m sure there’s more to this story. We never get both sides. Fake news!
The issue of entry level (low educated) antisemitism (Black or White) is not new.
I had an experience about 20 years ago on Jetblue.
My wife and I were and are not regular air travelers and we were young parents with a 2 yr old going to Florida for a Simcha.
The trip going there was wonderful. We brought along a car sear for my child to use in the seat we paid for as we had been told by the airline. The flight staff treated us respectfully and professionally and even let us exit first because of our child. (Although I am not Chassidish, I do have a beard and Payos – so, obviously Jewish).
On the way back, the staff were horrible to us. At first, they wouldn’t even let us on the plane with the car seat! They had to call someone to get “permission”. They were rude to us the entire time. This is not new. We felt their hatred, loud and clear.
Satmar news is completely correct in likening this incident to Naziism. It’s true that the Nazis ended up murdering our people, but that was the result of their philosophy and perspective on the Jewish people. The primary reason for the Holocaust was the attitude they engendered and created towards us, which they spread throughout the whole population.
Assuming the reports to be correct exonerating this chassidish gentleman from any wrongdoings, the behaviour of the stewardess in question is rooted in the same bigotry, xenophobia and hate. And so, the comparison to Naziism is quite correct and accurate.
@zero_tolerance: Lawyer here. You are quoting an Illinois statute, which will not in any way apply to something that happened in Florida. Even if it did, I doubt this qualifies under Illinois law as a “hate crime.” You are relying on the “intimidation” trigger, but criminal intimidation is not simply stating that a (non-physical) consequence may arise out of your action or inaction, even if the person making that statement is in the wrong. Rather, criminal “intimidation” is separately defined by Illinois law (720 ILCS 5/12-6) – though to really understand how it is interpreted, you’d have to read the cases applying the statute, which I have not done. Also keep in mind that criminal “intimidation” is a *felony* in Illinois, so a court is not going to willy-nilly elevate every dispute into “intimidation.”
Again, in all events, Illinois law does not apply here, so this discussion is purely academic.
I RECOMMEND SUING THE STEWARDESS FOR $100,OOO.
I strongly believe that when the stewardess threatened that she will leave the flight Delta should have told her that if she doesn’t give in then it will be her last flight as a Delta employee. By bending to her threat itself is very unprofessional
If anyone involved can reach out, I had a situation with Delta a few month back as well. I never filed suit but would be interested in discussing, thanks!
I repeat the suggestion I made in the previous discussion, if a lawyer had been immediately involved, possibly threatening the airline with a serious lawsuit the result might have been different, at least he might have gotten a lot more than $500 out of it and the airlines would learn a lesson and start training their employees better.
Why doesn’t some legal firm offer emergency travel insurance where anyone having problems can call their hotline and have a lawyer who knows travel law speak to the plane crew and if need be to the airline’s legal department. I suspect in most cases they could resolve all problems (airlines don’t like to be sued, staff don’t like having such things on their records, in some cases they might tell the passenger just to comply). For a small charge per flight, since such incidents are pretty rare, they could make a lot of money. What do the lawyers out there think?
I think something may be missing here. If the passenger offered to put his shtreimel box under the seat, what was the problem? He had put his jacket and hat on so they were not “extra” carry on pieces. Aside of the shtreimel box all he had was one trolley bag which easily fitted in the overhead bin. The passenger’s demeanor was in itself a kiddush Hashem. He simply got off the plane in a very controlled manner, despite the fact that it seems he had done nothing wrong. There are quite a number of “they picked on me because I am obviously Jewish” videos going around. Th outcome for an anti-Semitic flight attendant is not going to be good, so why was this woman so adamant? That is what I am asking by saying I think something may be missing here. Often there is a fully blown screaming match. Then the crew can fairly easily say it was not safe to allow the passenger to remain.
Had it been a Muslim or black being harassed the stewardess would have been fired on the spot for such behavior. When it’s a Jew they allow this woman back on the flight! What a dumb policy! Tell her if she won’t come back on the plane, she won’t have a job the next day.. ridiculous that she called the shots for Delta.
“Zero tolerance”, that is not intimidation. There is no crime here, and therefore there can be no hate crime.
Gtrestman, where is the crime? Antisemitism isn’t and CAN’T be a crime. Congress has no power to make it a crime.
It is not always so simple to just replace one crew member which may be why Delta will not let a single member off absent extremely strong grounds. It is easier to compensate one irate passenger than jeopardize a whole plane full of angry people. I was on a plane in Europe some years ago when one crew member called in sick. They did not have a replacement available close by and I’m any event the cre they had were almost tim s out. In the end a while new crew was brought in but by then the flight arrived too late to about the airline getting hit with a very heavy bill for the delay. EU compensation is both statutory and generous! In this case one really wonders what the stewardess was up to. The passenger was quiet, respectful and not in the least bit assertive or rude. Didn’t she think at least one if not 10 people were likely filming what was going on.
Grammar and spelling corrected version, no edit changes!
It is not always or so simple to just replace one crew member which may be why Delta will not let a single member off absent extremely strong grounds. It is easier to compensate one irate passenger than jeopardize a timely arrival for a whole plane full of angry people. I was on a plane in Europe some years ago when one crew member called in sick. They did not have a replacement available close by and in any event the crew they had were almost timed out. In the end a whole new crew was brought in but by then the flight arrived too late to avoid the airline getting hit with a very heavy bill for the delay. EU compensation is both statutory and generous! In this case one really wonders what the stewardess was up to. The passenger was quiet, respectful and not in the least bit assertiveb
The ‘You People’ comment isn’t nice but isn’t far off from facts on the ground. Our people do generally carry far more baggage onto planes than allowed. Shtreimel boxes and Sheitel boxes are almost always to large to be considered a ‘personal item’ and do not fit underneath the seat in front. They’re much too bulky for that.
He says that he boarded the aircraft “carrying a single carry-on suitcase and one hat box, both of which were within the allowed size and weight limits per Delta’s baggage rules and limitations”.
This is untrue.
Each passenger flying with Delta can bring 1 carry-on bag and 1 personal item free of charge (such as a purse, laptop bag or item of similar size that will fit underneath the seat in front of you). If you plan to bring roll-aboard luggage or a large bag to store in the overhead bin, you can find size information below:
Individual length, width and height measurements may not exceed 22” x 14” x 9” (56 cm x 35 cm x 23 cm) respectively. These measurements include any handles or wheels.
The roll-aboard luggage which this traveler stored in the overhead bin exceeds these dimensions. I checked the video and am 100% sure about that. And that’s not even considering the Shtreimel box carried on board as a ‘personal item’… The flight attendant should not have said ‘you people’ but was correct on policy.
So how about just being grateful for all the times you ARE allowed to board with oversize carry on bags without financial penalty and stop bleating when the rules are enforced on the odd occasion.