At least 100 people have been stranded at an airport in Ukraine for 12 hours, without any food.
Ukrainian Airlines flight PS778 from Tel Aviv arrived at Boryspil International Airport in Kiev at 8:40AM Monday morning (all times are local). Ukrainian Airlines flight PS231 was scheduled to depart for New York City at around 11:30AM, but had yet to board as of this time, 8:30PM.
There are mothers and young children among the stranded travelers, and the airport has not provided any food the Jewish travelers believe is sufficiently Kosher (or appetizing). Chabad of Kiev arrived at the airport at around 9:00PM with food for sale.
Additionally, there is a group of travelers who have been awaiting a flight to New York City since YESTERDAY (Sunday), including a mother and young children, and the airport did not offer to pay for a hotel etc.
YWN spoke with a woman in the group who says the airport has been very vague about the reason for the delay. Initially they were told there were mechanical issues. Then they were told there were difficulties with the weather, though that did not appear to be an issue for any other flight. Now they have been informed again that there is a mechanical issue with the plane.
The airport has announced they will be departing for New York City at 10:30PM, though the travelers remain skeptical that will be the case.
UPDATE: The flight took at at 12:45AM (local time) – a 13+ hour delay.
Several have told YWN they speculate Ukrainian Airlines was merely holding up the flight for passengers on other connecting flights to arrive, allowing them to have a fuller plane on the flight to New York.
VIDEO shows travelers trying to get information from airport management:
(Nat Golden – YWN)
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18 Responses
Paid for by sponsors of El Al?
The Russians attacked the Ukraine Navy over the weekend, seizing 3 ships and their crew. The Caspian sea is a dangerous place to sail in or fly over at this time. That may be the reason for the delay.
You get what you pay for.
fly cheap, what do you expect.
be’shas ha’dechak, especially small children, can eat food that adults under normal circumstances, might be mesupak about. being machmir for small children gives you a designation of chossid shoteh.
Please do not post nasty comments. Those comments are very painful. Treat them the same way that you would like
to be treated.
SMFG3, DrYidd, laughing …. and all similar posts ” get what you pay for ” There is nothing wrong with buying cheap tickets, maybe they can’t afford better maybe not regardless it is definitely WRONG is saying such heartless comments when others are suffering. It is unbelievable that another yid can say something like that whether they right or wrong it is ESAV like talk. TALK IS CHEAP TOO < why do you talk ? All the Parshas we just in the past weeks about Esav and Yakov, whom would u think would make such a comment ??? what did you benefit from this comment? AT LEAST IF IT WOULD have BEEN MENTIONED IN THE SAME COMMENT " GET WHAT U PAY FOR " some empathy for the young children who are at no fault! I would think there was some point which I don't get, .HEARTBREAKING! comments by our fellow Yidden. ( we want Moshiach?)
12 hours. Oy, I hope noone died.
In the good old days, no heimishe yid traveled without enough extra food for 5 days. The fear of gaining weight has discouraged people from packing a spare kokosh cake for an hour’s drive, and 10 cold cut sandwiches for an overseas flight.
I think the Ukrainian orange juice and a few other items sold at the Kiev airport stores are kosher….
Maitiv: You 100% right…NO kosher traveler should ever leave home without having kosher sandwiches . I travel alot and always take along can of Salmon with crackers just in case. Those Airline food usually are very untasty and lots of times airlines just dont have it prepared .
Is there a law or a regulation that says they must be provided with kosher food if the flight is delayed? I’m in agreement with maitiv, if I’m flying back from NYC I’ve usually got a couple dozen bagels, some rye bread and lox, in my carry on just in case.
You mentioned orange juice.
Please do not drink orange juice on an empty stomach.
Sorry, but having spent multiple days/nights at Airports due to weather/mechanical delays and having “scavenged” for food/drink that are OK from a kashruth perspective, I have zero sympathy for these whining yidden who did not plan for contingencies. When you fly today, especially in the winter or in conflict areas, yoy have to assume whatever can go wrong will go wrong and you have a “Plan B”, “Planc C” etc. I very much doubt any European airline is obligated to provide more than the standard tariff requirements for a 12 Euro (lunch)/21 Euro (dinner) meal voucher if one of thei flights is delayed. They certainly have no obligation to provide a pastrami sandwich with Badatz hashgacha or any hashgacha for that matter. If you are travelling with children and haven’t packed “survival snacks” you obviously are not too concerned about those kids. Several posters have made the obvious point that when travelling we all pack away some kosher backup food on long flights where connections create a high risk of delays. Maybe we can get the ehrliche rav who was boycotting El Al (for about 17 hours) and staged a stupid media event to “burn” his frequent flyer card, to organize a boycott of the Ukranian Airline instead. I also suspect there will be no shortage of Nachman groupies willing to buy non-refundable tickets to Uman next September for the annual Breslov Rosh Hashanah festival.
Also, if Chabad was “selling” some limited kosher food to those passengers who observed kashruth and who were hungry, that further mitigates the “crisis” (I understand why chabad might request “donations” to offset the cost of providing such meals since most Chabad shalichim operate on a shoestring budget with very little spare funds for such contingencies).
Thank you for reporting this.
I am often tempted to fly this route (due to the lower prices) but always hold myself back due to geographic reasons.
This article gives me chizzuk to stand the temptation.
May all these poor souls arrive home safely.
elal would’ve spun it as a charedi riot ! hence they were scared to let them onto the plane
after all said and done jews will be jews and want the best deal out their but to use the famous last words YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR, INDEED
of course the airline is way way out of line ,but who are you going to complain to?? you’ll get no where
this isn’t the first time nor the last we never learn our lesson
YWN, this is not a fiasco. It is a fact of flying life. Delays occur, sometimes long delays.
There are several outlets at this modern airport that sell drinks and fruit.
Additionally, Kyiv Borispol Airport is about 35 minutes drive from either of the main shuls in Kyiv, the Karlin Stolin Center and the Lubavitch affiliated Brodsky Shul. Each of those community centers has adjacent restaurants with proper hashgocha in addition to well-stocked grocery stores. The Beit Yehuda restaurant in the basement of the Brodsky Shul building is exceptionally good value for money. The cost of a taxi from the airport to the city is about $30. I imagine that if either Rav Yankel Bleich of Karlin Stolin or Rav Moshe Reuven Azman of Lubavitch had been contacted they would have put themselves out to help with kosher food for the travelers, which they need not have done for free. Why is it that these days people seem to have lost all sense of self-responsibility? It is possible to buy OU certified goods all over the USA but how many European airports sell specifically prepared kosher food outside of the UK? UIA is not one of the world’s class legacy airlines. Their fares are cheaper and their service less fancy. You do get what you pay for. That is not said unkindly, it is simply a statement of fact.
Heilige Yidden: Ukrainian International is not much different to El Al. Each is a small national airline kept going for prestige reasons that operates on a shoestring budget and a limited number of planes. Any maintenance issue can cause long delays. Ukrainian International doesn’t just have another plane available to conjure up to fly to New York. Its whole long range fleet is just seven airplanes. Kiev is not an international wet lease center.
Don’t the women embarrassingly whining at the Ukrainian manager realize they are not in Boro Park or Flatbush? One asks about getting a plane from Delta and if I heard correctly another asks about Tower z”l. Got news for you ladies, no US legacy carrier flies into Kiev. The only non-stop direct flights to New York are with Ukrainian International. If you wanted to fly directly from Tel Aviv, why not take United, Delta or El Al? Delta even has kosher snacks available for you in Economy between the meal services. Simple answer: the difference in cost between Ukrainian International via Kiev and a direct non-stop flight is about 60%. Pays your money and takes your choice!
grepsoops, you know little about the price of flying. yes, i fly business class or first almost always. but I advise everyone there a few airlines NEVER to fly – ukranian is one. Turkish, LOT, or Iberia are often cheaper and they are good choices in that order. when someone tries to save $50 on a $700 fare, they should not expect much. take $30 and bring some food that meets your kashrut standards.