El Al to compensate all 400 passengers on flight diverted for Shabbat
Each passenger will receive a free round-trip ticket to the European destination of their choice following the incident last week
El Al will compensate the 400 passengers on the Tel Aviv-bound flight that was forced to divert in order to allow Sabbath-observant passengers to get off the plane.
Each passenger will receive a free round-trip ticket to the European destination of their choice, the airline announced Monday.
The airline also issued a clarification of a previous statement about violence toward the flight crew on the plane in order to stave off a threatened boycott of the airline by the Charedi community.
The flight, which left New York more than five hours late on Nov. 15, was diverted midflight to Athens, where the Shabbat observers disembarked and spent Saturday in a hotel near the airport. The rest of the passengers boarded an Israir plane several hours later and returned to Tel Aviv, since El Al does not fly on the Sabbath.
The flight had been delayed due to bad weather and was racing the clock to reach Israel before the start of the Sabbath. Dozens of passengers had demanded that the plane return to the gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport so they could disembark, but instead the plane took off.
Several accounts on social media and in blog posts have offered differing accounts of what occurred on the flight. It is unclear whether passengers, both religious and non-Sabbath observant, were violent toward the crew.
The new statement said that “similar to the clarification on November 19, the company did not place blame on the secular, religious or Charedi communities for the reported events.”
“Any statement to the contrary was not done with the knowledge of El Al,” the statement said, adding that “El Al does not distinguish between its customers on the basis of sector, gender, or nationality.”
The statement also said that “the El Al management supports and appreciates the flight and ground crews who worked on this flight in an admirable manner.”
On Monday, shortly after the release of the statement, Rabbi Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, who had been on the flight and threatened El Al CEO Gonen Ussishkin with the boycott if he did not apologise to the haredi community for saying they were violent on the flight, reportedly was seen boarding an El Al flight.
Sorotzkin, the head of the Beit Shemesh-based Ateres Shlomo yeshiva network, on Sunday afternoon had publicly cut up his El Al frequent flier card at Ben Gurion Airport.
Meanwhile, a security official for El Al, a former Shin Bet official, and two others were arrested Monday on suspicion of smuggling large amounts of cocaine into Israel on El Al planes as part of an international drug-smuggling network. It was described during a court hearing on Wednesday as a “large and wide-ranging affair,” The Times of Israel reported.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
