A New York high school senior class and an airline agree on one thing: 101 students and eight chaperones were kicked off an early-morning flight from New York to Atlanta on Monday.
From there, the accounts diverge.
Southwest Airlines said the group of “non-compliant passengers” would not stay seated, and some were using their mobile devices. When the students failed to comply with requests from the flight crew, including the captain, they were asked to leave the plane, delaying the AirTran flight for 45 minutes, said Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins.
Students and chaperones from Yeshivah of Flatbush, a private, Orthodox Jewish high school in Brooklyn, said the flight crew overreacted to the youths who were looking forward to visiting Six Flags and rafting, among other activities.
“It blew out of proportion. It was a mountain out of a molehill,” said teacher Marian Wielgus, one of the chaperones.
According to Wielgus, some students may have had to be told twice to sit down or turn off their phones, but everyone listened.
“They certainly did not do what the stewardess was claiming they did,” she said. “That’s what was so bizarre.”
Wielgus said the flight attendants were “nasty,” “overreacting” and “created an incident when there didn’t have to be one.”
According to Southwest Airlines, the group violated safety regulations.
(Studio B)
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13 Responses
Where are all the Modern Orthodox rabbis condemning this massive Chillul Hashem?
Sorry, but this story is all too familiar. This is 2013 and anyone with half a brain flying on a commercial airline should know that there is zero tolerance among flight crews for any rowdy behavior or failure to obey the instructions of the flight crews. It was sheer stupidity to pack over a 100 teens on the same flight but having done so, the chaperones had the obligation to keep them under control which they failed to do. The decision as to what is acceptable behavior is 100 percent that of the flight crew and the courts have consistently updheld their decisions. They are lucky Southwest accomodated them on a later flight rather than simply throwing them out of the airport.
Chachom, that comment does not befit your name. I have no doubt this will be addressed in Shabbos drashos in Modern Orthodox shuls across the tri-state area and beyond. Can you say the same for scandals in your community?
i think these Brooklyn kids have very rarely, if ever, flown on a plane, and they did not take the warnings seriously enough. i think the chaperones as well probably fall into the same catagory. but i guess with limitations and rules not allowing the chaperones to get out of their seats, it was probably impossible to intervene. i think the attendant should have approached a chaperone and ask them to intervene.
To the above comments:
Why are you condemning the students? There is a simple disagreement between the students and the stewardesses as to what exactly happened. Why not be dan lekaf Zechus – at least until an investigation. (Don’t forget, the airline gave the kids free vouchers, in addition to putting them on different flights! Hmmm…)
For what it’s worth, I spoke to a “goyisha” friend/client of mine who is a stewardess on a different airline and she took the side of the Yeshiva kids.
I am also not sure why people are asking where the “media” is. Does that make this story better/worse?
RC , nice to see, you are trying to give the benefit of doubt, but a majority of these kids have been on planes before, with their families, especially, when they have winter break so it is highly unlikely, that they have never been on a plane before. These teenagers for sure know, what is expected behavior on a plane. But put over a hundred excited kids, together, and it can get very noisy.
Anyone who looks Jewish is treated differently with a ‘stronger hand’ on airlines. This has nothing to do with rowdiness, size of crowd or strength of chaperones, has to do with lack of patience for Jews.
One of the other passengers who was interviewed made an interesting point. He takes this flight all the time and it is a commuter flight that never has families, kids, etc. Suddenly they have a hundred of them. Could have been a factor.
aryeh111: Yes, by us they always address these issues by Shabbos seudas too. But where is the M.O. rabbis *public* condemnation of this massive C”H? Their silence is deafening.
I would take the students word for it because usually Yeshiva students have more derech eretz than others.
Anyone who flies with any regularity knows that sometimes flight attendants have really big fat attitudes. This has been the case for the last 13 years since they were given the power to be higher than G-d Almighty. I have seen flight attendants fly off the handle over the simplest things.
Before condemning the yeshiva students, know all the facts before jumping to conclusions! Whether we do something right or wrong we are always placed in the negative category by the media.