"There was chaos on the plane, the stewardesses cried." Passengers of the flight in Tel Aviv entered into conflict with the crew, fearing not to be in time for Shabbat

The plane of the Israeli airline EL Al, who performed a flight from New York to Tel Aviv, on November 16, made an unplanned landing in Athens due to the risk of landing before the start of Shabbat . According to the Gaarets newspaper, the rule not to fly to Shabbat is included in the airline’s policy.

The flight was detained due to bad weather in New York-the car with the crew reached the airport for five and a half hours, writes The Times of Israel. Before departure, the commander, as follows from his report, found out that several orthodox Jews on board expresses concern in aggressive expressions due to the fact that the aircraft would not fly to Israel before the start of Shabbat.

The pilot told the passengers that the flight would land an hour and a half before that moment, however, realizing that the unrest did not stop, he announced his return to the terminal - thus, everyone could leave the side. At this moment, the rabbi, who was on the plane, asked for permission to turn to passengers - and announced that if he landed an hour and a half before Shabbat, this would not be a violation of the prohibitions existing in Judaism.

What happened later is not quite clear. The pilot claims that the dissatisfied agreed to continue the flight. Some passengers say that this is not so - and accuse the captain of deliberate deception. “The pilot announced a return to the landing and asked everyone to sit in place. Then he steamed and took off for several minutes. Of course, sitting in your chair, you do not understand exactly where the plane is sent, ” wrote one of the passengers, slanted Steinhart.

During the flight, it became clear that the aircraft still did not have time to Israel-according to the commander, the dispatchers unexpectedly sent a liner along a longer route for the crew. After the announcement of the landing in Athens on board, according to the second pilot, unrest began again: people began to scream, call the crew members liars and even use power to the flight attendants. “There was chaos on the plane, the stewardesses cried,” he wrote in his report.

Some passengers confirm these messages: Roni Meal, who was on board, wrote that people really applied force to the crew members, threatening to break into the cabin, and that she had to protect the crying flight attendants from passengers. Others deny all this: according to the journalist Johud Schlezinger, the only manifestation of violence was the crew attempts to take away the camera from him; In addition, the crew allegedly tried to refuse passengers to maintain.

“Many passengers, secular and religious, got angry and began to attack the crew - verbally and even physically. On the other hand, some wonderful passengers got up to protect the crew from an aggressive group. <...> Some tried to help us distribute food, fold trays, ”one of the stewardesses quotes the newspaper ONOOT AHRONOT.

Some passengers flew out of Athens to Tel Aviv the same evening; Others who did not want to travel to Shabbat went to Israel on Saturday evening. Another flight, which also flew out of New York late, was going to land in Rome, but due to health problems, one of the passengers reached Israel.

El Al is going to file a complaint with at least one of the passengers, writes The Times of Israel. The company apologized and promised to investigate the incident. In a letter to employees, the head of EL Al Alon Uzhishkin said that the situation with disputes and mutual accusations contradicts the company's position as a “national carrier that carries the flag of Israel”.

Victor Davydov