WABC out of New York is reporting that an Orthodox Jewish man who had been praying while a United Airlines flight was boarding was kicked off after he wouldn’t sit down.
As the story goes, the man boarded the flight and moved back to the lav to pray, which as doctrine dictates, can’t be interrupted. After flight attendants asked him to sit down and he repeatedly didn’t respond, they summoned a security guard to escort him off the plane.
I can see how standing up during pushback can be a security issue, but is it really necessary to kick the guy off for such a short delay? According to one of the witnesses on the flight, the ritual was only supposed to take two minutes.
But the best part about the article on ABC 7 is how they try to suggest it had something to do with religious or racial profiling. They make sure to point out that the man “wore a full beard, a black hat and a long black coat” and that he was “carrying a religious book”. Look out! Those rascals with religious books are dangerous!