A group of Orthodox Jewish schoolgirls were booted from a Delta Air Lines at Amsterdam Schipol Airport on Friday morning allegedly because they were eating their own Kosher food outside of the mealtime set by Delta.
Armed police escorted the group of 18 young girls from the New York JFK bound aircraft over allegations that they had broken strict Coronavirus health measures by removing their face masks to eat their own food.
According to Israeli news outlets, the girls were part of a larger group of 50 Orthodox Jewish passengers who were traveling from Ukraine to New York City with Dutch airline KLM with a short stopover in Amsterdam to connect onto a Delta Air Lines flight.
After boarding their connecting in Amsterdam, some of the group started eating their own food but failed to stop when flight attendants pointed out that they were apparently not allowed to eat outside of designated mealtimes and should put their face masks back on.
According to Delta Air Lines, the girls refused to comply with flight attendant instructions and were therefore removed from the flight. Delta flight DL47 departed Amsterdam over two hours late on Friday due to the incident and the Airbus A330 aircraft didn’t arrive in JFK until 2:14 pm.
Once escorted off the aircraft by police, ground agents refused to rebook the group onto another flight that would have got them into New York before the start of Shabbat.
The group were transferred to Antwerp by a local Jewish charity to spend Shabbat amongst an Orthodox Jewish community.
The U.S. federal face mask mandate makes it a legal requirement for all airline passengers aged two and over to wear a face mask on U.S.-bound flights and on U.S.-registered aircraft. However, passengers are allowed to remove their face masks under certain limited circumstances including to eat and drink.
The mandate does not specify that food and drink should only be consumed at designated times. In this case, the girls were apparently eating Kosher food prepared under very strict guidelines which would not have been available during the normal service provided by Delta.
Delta has been contacted for further comment.
Why couldn’t they just wait, like everyone else on the flight?
Delta certainly hasn’t maintained such a “rule” about when passengers can eat their own food on the domestic US flights of mine that I’ve been flying with them during this pandemic.
This is a flight from Amsterdam; who knows what rules they operate under. Recall that US rule about not congregating in the front of the lavs at the front of the aircraft for approach into DCA. Not complying with that rule would certainly have been met with some “enforcement”. It boils down to whether they wanted to follow crew member instructions or not. It may be stupid, but it will get you kicked off the flight or subsequent follow up action.
At any rate, the point is that they could eat their meal later; they were not deprived of it. They were not singled out for being Orthodox Jews (as the other Orthodox Jews were able to comply with the mask request). They just couldn’t wait to eat and didn’t want to follow instructions.
Well said.
I have flown via AMS repeatedly during this pandemic, and removing a mask for eating/drinking has not been restricted by the Dutch government to only “designated meal times”.
It seems that others who have flown via Amsterdam have not been subject to any rule which says that they cannot eat carry on food before take off. So your claim that the flight crew may have a valid complaint against the girls eating before take off is a red herring. The flight crew imposed that baseless rule arbitrarily. What say you now?
Apparently there is no Delta Air policy or any policy associated with Amsterdam Airport which prohibits people from eating carry on food before take off. So why were the flight attendants enforcing a non-existent regulation?
Im sort of on the fence with this, since if a Flight crew member tells to do something or not to you must listen, even if they are 1000% wrong. On the other side I Never heard that there is only certain times that I can eat and must do so when told, and it seems the carrier wasnt providing any meals to them. So even if it was a case of Anti-Semitism (which I believe it was since whats KLMs biz what DL did). once a flight requests you to do something or not to thats that, you must listen or be prepared to go thru what these girls are going thru. A big Shame on KLM and DL
Does the food being Kosher have any relevance? What’s the slant here?
Kosher is probably the reason they brought their own food rather than eat what the airline served.
Some of the flights from KBP to AMS leave so early that it’s not unusual for young people on morning flights out of KBP to AMS come into the airport very early or even overnight there and bring their own food. And given what KLM serves in coach on a “complimentary basis” for the KBP-AMS flights, that’s a flight where bringing your own food for the trip shouldn’t be a surprise.
An Orthodox Jew will only eat food that is certified Kosher. Delta did not offer food certified Kosher so the group supplied their own food.
Why do you need to bring religion into this? It has no relevance at all.
That was really my point when asking about Kosher.
Right? The headline should read spoiled brats don’t follow rules get thrown off flight.
Ridiculous rules made by evil politicians/judges should be ignored by flight attendants and cops. People who blindly enforce abusive laws are low life’s. Cops are not heroes. These flight attendants are not heroes. It certainly is inappropriate to give Jews special treatment given they are 3% of the population in the U.S. and Europe and control nearly every industry, push a globalist agenda, and 80% of Jews are communists. However, orthodox tend to be a little more sensible and honorable than the rest. Orthodox aren’t the cleanest people but they don’t have moral taint like the other globalists.
Jesus dude do you always just go balls-to-the-wall with the anti-semitism? Take a breath once in a while, Cleetus
You really need a reality check. Unbelievable….
You need to take your meds, Jackson.
Would be nice if they publish the whole story. These 18 girls caused trouble in July on a KLM flight from NY to Amsterdam. They were spoken to by the police in AMS and went on their way to Kiev. They traveled back from Kiev to AMS on KLM where they caused trouble again. I guess they eat all the time and therefore don’t wear masks. KLM refused to put them on a connecting KLM flight to NY. They were rebooked on Delta to JFK. Plane didn’t even make it of the gate before they got kicked for not following mask rules. Now they can eat all the time..in Amsterdam..
Completely counter intuitive and non practical. I would much rather eat or drink on an airplane in a staggered order than with everyone at the same time. Ok everyone let’s all remove our masks now at the same time! Yeh that’s a healthy idea!
I was on this flight.
The whole group had been told numerous times prior to boarding to put their masks on at the gate.
After boarding they were told to stop eating and put their masks on. They refused, at that point.
Then their group leader started hollering, they are not terrorists…
Now we all know once that word is used loudly on a plane…
Not so smart, so we ALL deplaned and they recorded us.
Fun fun fun