A group of 57 passengers recently sued United Airlines for alleged antisemitic discrimination, claiming the airline turned a plane around mid-flight to Tel Aviv from Newark, N.J., because many of the passengers were Jewish, the New York Post reported.
The plane was turned around roughly three hours into a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to Ben-Gurion International Airport on April 22, 2023, when a passenger sat in a flight attendant’s seat while waiting for the restroom. The crew member then told the pilot there was a “security threat,” according to the suit filed with the Manhattan Supreme Court.
The lawsuit alleges that the flight crew “blamed all the rest of the passengers,” many of whom were “visibly Jewish,” and who were traveling home for Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut. The “ill-trained and/or unvetted crew” then allegedly acted with “prejudice,” according to the suit, the Post reported.
Passengers state they did not receive assistance in rebooking new flights upon their return to Newark, with one passenger alleging that a flight attendant told them to “go ask your own kind” for help, per the lawsuit.
The suit added that United “acted willfully, wantonly and with reckless disregard for the plaintiffs’ rights, targeting visibly Jewish passengers as a group, denying them the continuation of their journey and subjecting them to humiliation and prejudice solely based on their religion and ethnicity.”
United said the suit was “meritless.”
“Our crew put safety first and exhibited professionalism in managing this matter, and we will vigorously defend against these false allegations,” the airline said in a statement, according to the Post.
United is also the subject of a criminal complaint after one of its pilots allegedly forced open an airplane bathroom door while an Orthodox Jewish man was inside, despite having been notified that the man had a medical condition.