Last Thursday, shomer Shabbos passengers leaving JFK Airport in NYC on El Al were expecting to arrive in Ben-Gurion Airport at 2:20PM erev Shabbos, about two hours before Shabbos. Some were even told not to worry, that even if delayed a half hour they were in time for Shabbos. However, there was an issue with the plane’s door, which would not close properly.
An hour passed and then they were compelled to wait for clearance for takeoff. At 22:10, after a 90-minute delay, some passengers began calculating, they would be landing very close to Shabbos. Some asked to get off the flight, too concerned over Shabbos to continue on the flight. Passengers report that were assured that nevertheless, they would be landing at 3:15PM. Then the pilot announced if the plane returns to the gate to permit religious passengers to get off in NY, all the 400 passengers would have to remain until after the weekend.
The pilot on the public-address system asked that the religious passengers to show consideration for the others, so they frum passengers felt that they had no choice but to remain on board the flight. The flight arrived at 3:15PM in Ben-Gurion and by the time many passengers cleared the terminal, there were no cabs waiting. Some report that they were compelled to carry luggage to their homes as they were not in time for Shabbos.
Responding to the report is El Al spokesman for the religious tzibur Aryeh Frenkel, saying “from the time the plane began take-off procedures returning to the gate is only done in extreme cases. Based on all the data in the hands of the crew, there was no fear the plane would land after Shabbos. In fact, the plane landed in time for people to return home before shekiya.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
19 Responses
With all due respect, but a shomer shabbos doesn’t travel on erev shabbos, especially in the winter and definitely not such a long-distance journey
Anyone who travels frequently on El Al or ANY other international airline knows that such occurrences are the norm and an hour or two delay is no big deal. Once a plane leaves the gate at a busy airport and is stuck on the runway because of weather or minor mechanical issues, returning to the gate is generally NOT an option since that gate may already be occupied by an incoming flight or the ground crew servicing the flight has shifted to others. If some ehrleche yidden are so worried about arriving before z’man they should fly only on Sunday to Wednesday. It would have been totally inappropriate to inconvenience hundreds of other passengers who had their own schedules and obligations because of a few frum yidden who had some angst about arriving late.
When will people realize that they should not take flights scheduled to land on Friday afternoon?
a real frum person would not travel so close to begin with
Leaving exactly 2 hours or less to land, disembark, find luggage, clear customs, find transportation and arrive at destination is REALLY cutting it close. Moving this flight up a few hours, would really alleviate this issue.
This is another incident where frum people travel to close to Shabbos. For example the Lakewood Bus Fiasco, or the plane from overseas that was rerouted to Boston etc. There is a gemara in Shabbos that says people should not travel less than double the time it takes to get to the destination if leaving close to Shabbos. Therefore if traveling to Eeretz Yisreol ir hakodesh for example people should not leave less than 19-21 hours before Shabbos Eeretz Yisroel time if possible & if not possible if traveling by Elal should not book any flight later than the 1:15 PM flight from Newark or if traveling by United should not book any flight later than the 4:05 PM flight from Newark.
That will teach them for flying with ElAl. I am mokpid NOT to fly that airline. They have an excuse for everything except customer service. They plain and simple DO NOT care. That is there motto. Lots of luck to anybody who flies with them. You get what you paid for. Aggravation!!
the bottom line, a yirei vshomayim should not risk traveling so late because delays do happen.
Still not sure why anyone would risk this issue and fly so late to Shabbos? It’s not like one isn’t aware of the potential issues involved since Shabbos is every week!
Anyone?
I’m flabbergasted as people do this all the time! In halacha there are all kinds of rules when traveling erev shabbos from town to town, shtetl to shtetl, as to to how much leeway to give yourself. Yet when traveling way across the globe, these people expect clockwork perfection and are upset that they are late?
A FAR AS I SEE IT, IF YOUR FLIGHT IS NOT SCHEDULED TO ARRIVE BY LATE THURSDAY OR MAYBE VERY VERY EARLY FRIDAY MORNING, THEN YOU ARE BASICALLY BEING A POSHAIYA OR EVEN A PSIK RAISHA IN YOUR CHILLUL SHABBOS!
i have no rachmonos on these passengers.
If you get on a plane to fly to EY SO CLOSE TO SHABBOS, don’t complain….
I am sorry I have no sympathy for these people. We always had a rule that you need to leave double the journey time for an erev shabbos journey.So if you leave NY for a twelve hour flight to TLV you need to leave at the latest, 24 hours before the zman. Otherwise any delay will cause Chillul Shabbos or at least a spoiling of Oneg Shabbos.
There were that many people on the plane who thought it was a wise decision to take a 10 hour airplane flight scheduled to arrive 2 hours before shabbos? Bears out the statement ein am ho’oretz chosid.
we cannot fully blame el al for this. the truth is that yidden should never travel to israel on a thursday; especially in the winter of early shabbosim. of course, there are always extenuating circumstances beyond ones control. i am speaking, in general. or, at the very least leave early on thursday. the “satan” has a marvelous way of preventing plane doors from closing on thursday afternoon flights. why take the chance?
I’m confused. The article states that the delay was due to a malfunctioning door, but later quotes the pilot as stating that the plane would have to return to the gate in order to accommodate the request of the religious passengers to get off.
Assuming the plane wouldn’t have left the gate until the door was repaired, there seems to be a gap in the narrative between the time people asked to get off and the pilot made his announcement that doing so would effectively cancel the flight altogether (i.e. leaving the gate and taxiing towards the runway).
They have themselves to blame!
One should never fly to arrive so close to Shabbos? There are always possibilities of delays.
What serious shomer shabbos would ever dream of booking a flight that is due to land two hours before Shabbos? Even if the flight had landed on time, how is it possible top collect ones baggage, go through customs, make your way to a car or taxi and arrive home ready and relaxed to greet Shabbos Hamalko?
FRUM PEOPLE OUGHT TO CANCEL ANY THURSDAY FLIGHTS WITH EL AL
UNLESS THEY LIVE 2 HOURS EARLIER
As just about everyone has noted, there is absolutely no way anyone with an ounce of common sense would have assumed they could schedule a flight with a 2 hour margin for Shabbos. What is really chutzpah is some passengers demanding that the flight be further delayed so they could get off.