By COLlive reporter
El Al Israel Airlines is once again drawing the ire of Jewish frum passengers…
Some 200 frum passengers who took El Al flight 028 from Newark on Thursday landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport and discovered that their suitcases were not on board.
Many of these passengers are Bobover chassidim who had returned from participating in the wedding of the grandson of the Bobover Rebbe and traveled with their Shabbos clothing.
Now, they learned that their suitcases and clothing didn’t even make it on the flight and were left in the United States.
The flight’s scheduled departure was 1:15 pm on Thursday, November 22. Passengers told the news website ch10.co.il the loading of the suitcases began late. An argument then developed between the pilot and airport security personnel.
“The pilot announced that he would not wait for the baggage and took off immediately, leaving behind two pallets with about 200 suitcases outside the plane,” a passenger said.
The flight took off at 1:40 PM. Once it landed in Israel at 6:45 AM, passengers without suitcases needed to wait in line to report their missing luggage and then head home to find alternatives for their shtreimels and kapotas.
El Al said in a statement to ch10.co.il: “Some of the passengers’ luggage has not yet arrived because of delays caused by the local authorities at Newark Airport. El Al is in contact with the passengers and is working to fly the cargo to Israel without delay. We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers.”
This debacle follows last week’s episode when a delayed El Al flight from New York went on to fly with frum passengers on Thursday night and then dropped them off in Athens, Greece, on Friday afternoon, shortly before Shabbos.
Following the flight, El Al issued a statement alleging that “a group of haredim” requested to get off the plane and “exercised heavy and violent pressure against the cabin crew” in seeking to disembark, the Jerusalem Post reported.
But as reported on COLlive.com, passengers on the flight refuted these claims and video clips didn’t show any physical violence against the cabin crew. El AL CEO Gonen Ussishkin later confirmed: “There wasn’t any physical violence” by frum passengers.
180 passengers are now demanding the airline reimburse passengers for the flight and provide damages for the sum of NIS 50,000 per person ($13,380), the Post reported.
I will have to have the last word on this one. “Village idiot”!? More like Village sage. A little logical reasoning for you my friend. You can’t prove that the pilots don’t know whose luggage that is or not but consider that Bobovers are like other people and often put their name on their luggage. Any pilot (or stewardess in collusion with the pilot) can easily get that kind of information. I fear that you are a Mapai supporter pushing a chiloni state on the collive readers. Please refrain.
Shalom al yisroel
they are reshaim and there is no mitzva to melamed zchus on them
You either have never left your shtetel or are an idiot or both. There is no way the pilot could know who’s luggage he was leaving behind. Stop making this into a religious v non religious issue. #1 is on point.
I am saddened. One can assume it was a mistake on any other airline, even Tirkish Airlines but when El Al viciously leaves Bobover luggage half way around the world you just know that it is malicious and the continued efforts of Mapai supporters to keep Israel chiloni. Whoa unto us!
It reminds me of the joke about an El Al stewardess who asks a passenger if he wants dinner. The passenger responds ” what are the choices?” The stewardess replies: “yes or no.”
pls dont fly Thursdays – it is too close to Shabbes time in Israel !!!!
The pilot was probably scared to end up late like the one the week before… planes leave with out luggage all the time. .. now they are making it into a religious issue….
Surprised people still use El Al. They dont know what customer service is and come with extra long lines.
There are plenty of options, Delta, United
stop crying anti-charedi at every opportunity! it happens all the time that luggage misses flights, for various reasons! it wasn;t done deliberately to spite chareidim!