A constipated United Airlines passenger who spent more than 30 minutes in the airplane bathroom was pulled out with his pants still around his ankles by an irate pilot who broke down the door and then had the humiliated customer frogmarched off the aircraft in handcuffs by law enforcement and detained in a CBP facility.
Details of the bizarre but alarming incident have just been revealed after an astonishing lawsuit was filed in a New York district court by the victim, Yisorel Liebb, a visibly Jewish passenger who was allegedly subjected to antisemitic abuse by the enraged pilot.
With echoes of the infamous Dr. David Dao drama that occurred on a United Airlines plane in 2018, Liebb says he was left screaming out in pain as Customs and Border Protection officers bent his arm and deliberately tightened handcuffs after he asked the reason why he was being detained.
According to court documents, the incident occurred on January 28 when Liebb and a friend boarded United flight UA-1601 from Tulum, Mexico, to Houston.
Shortly after takeoff, Liebb went to use the restroom, but after 20 minutes of being inside the lavatory, a flight attendant became concerned and fetched Liebb’s friend to see why he had been gone for so long.
Liebb’s friend made contact with him through the lavatory door and relayed to the flight attendant that he was suffering from constipation but should be out soon.
Ten minutes passed, and there was still no sign of Liebb. At this point, one of the pilots got involved and ordered Liebb’s friend to coax him from the lavatory.
When Liebb didn’t immediately leave the restroom, the pilot allegedly began yelling at him. Liebb tried to reassure the pilot that he “was just finishing up” and would leave the restroom very soon, but the pilot became “visibly enraged” and broke the lock to force the door open.
The pilot then allegedly pulled Liebb out of the bathroom with his pants still down around his ankles, exposing his genitals to all of the passengers sitting in the vicinity of the restroom.
At this point, the pilot then allegedly made antisemitic remarks about Liebb and “how Jews act.”
Once on the ground, however, the pair’s ordeal at the hands of United Airlines was not finished. Unbeknownst to them, the pilot had arranged for the plane to be met by law enforcement, with CBP officers boarding the plane and demanding that everyone remain seated.
The officers then made a beeline for Liebb and his friend, pulled them from their seats, and handcuffed them. They were both taken to a Homeland Security facility where they were handcuffed to tables and subjected to “intrusive, unconsented, unwarranted and unreasonable searches.”
Liebb claims he sustained injuries to his head and legs as he was pulled from the bathroom, as well as wrist pain from being handcuffed too tight. The pair are demanding compensation from United under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention, which makes airlines responsible for injuries by passengers during an international flight.
In the wake of the Dr. David Dao incident, United Airlines drastically changed the way it dealt with non-compliant passengers, with flight attendants trained to de-escalate incidents as far as possible and to avoid physical intervention if at all possible.
Flight attendants at the airline often say they are there to advise and report rather than to enforce, allowing United to take follow-up action after the fact. In some rare cases, however, United still trains aircrew to physically restrain passengers should their behavior become so disruptive that they pose an immediate risk to safety,
Re-word your article. This deals with safety and security. Anyone in the bathroom for more than 30 is alarming. Especially if they’re coming from Mexico.
This report is the one sided version of the passenger. It is possible all this is true as reported by the passenger, however, I doubt it very much. I am Jewish myself and I doubt this event occurred as reported by the passenger. I would very much like to see the other side of the report. In other words, the report of the aircrew. This must have been a very significant disturbance for the pilot to leave the cockpit and break a door in to remove the passenger from the lavatory.
Sounds like he could have been a drug mule. CPB can X-ray him and find out. Nobody comes out of Mexico constipated…..
Montezuma’s revenge!
Not to mention, lavatory doors are made to be easily opened from the outside, in case of a medical emergency for the person inside. No reason to ever “break it down”.
REALLY?! And what kind of proof supporting your anti-Semitic slant do you have other than your total ignorance? Please. Enlighten me with evidence other than your self-hate.
Oh stop. He was just pointing at the one-sidedness of the facts stated in the article, which is undeniably true. Most one-sided stories are untrue, so it’s not unreasonably to have doubts about this article. He didn’t say anything antisemitic, you are assuming that which is ironic since you are also asking for evidence for his claims.
Funny!!
Does any one REALLY believe this story? There is NO NEED to break down the door unless the latch is jammed. NO pilot is going to leave the cockpit to face a passenger issue. Not gonna happen on a US carrier. Does anyone remember the events of September 11, 2001? If nothing else, the flight crew will lockdown the cockpit. Something stinks (no pun intended) about this whole episode.
Definitely, not one of the pilots flying. The flight attendants would not have cleared either pilot to come out of the flight deck if there was someone in the forward lav. It could’ve been a commuting pilot in uniform. It could’ve also been a male flight attendant that the passenger mistook for a pilot (because gender roles biases).
Pilots are people like anyone else, they are not supposed to drink before flying but there are several instances of pilots doing just that and losing their jobs. Also, how about the witnesses? Improbable things happen all the time, it would be quite an elaborate ruse otherwise and could be easily disproven given a plane full of witnesses. I’m curious why you think someone would make up such an easily disproven story, unless, say, it actually happened.
I’m not sure what the “…not supposed to drink” has to do with anything. As a Part 121 pilot instructor for a major carrier, the FAA requires a minimum of two authorized people in the cockpit AT ALL TIMES. Although this was an international flight, it was of short duration. United flies a Boeing 737-900 into Tulum. Thus, there were only two pilots on the flight deck. Unless there was a jumpseat pilot aboard and in uniform, there would be only two in the cockpit. A flight attendant would be required to enter the cockpit should any active flight deck pilot leave to use the restroom, etc. If there is a disturbance in the cabin, the cockpit is immediately locked down. PERIOD! The flight crew will usually initiate contact with their operations center via radio or ACARS to explain what is going on. I, and my colleagues, encourage our captains to request security meet the aircraft at the gate if there is significant disruption by a passenger. The captain must take the flight attendant’s suggestions as they are the ones dealing directly with the issue. Most of our captains will, during the pre-flight briefing to the cabin crew will say something to the effect, “You deal with difficult passengers all the time. If you are nervous about something, then I am nervous, too.” There’s more to this event than is being reported.
these reactions seem to ignore one thing”
there are many other passengers who need to get into the bathroom !
just what do the critics on here think they should have done ?
this isnt anything but a common sense issue AND THE PILOT WAS ABOSOLUTELY RIGHT IN WHAT HE DID
Nobody leaves Mexico constipated.
Nobody ever.
I always do. Anytime on them on a plane I’m constipated. I drink the water right from the tap in Mexico and never get sick so don’t talk about everyone what are you idiot that’s the stupidest word to ever use is everyone because not everyone of anything
Considering the Israeli origin behind the events on 9/11, and the load of security measures (some needed, some over the top) that followed, IMO, this passenger used “constipation” to intentionally warrant extra attention to the possibility of narcotics being muled, knowing that if he remained in the lavoratory for long enough, at some point, the flight crew would be forced to take action. Again, IMO, this appears to be a well thought out sceme to intitiate litigation against United Airlines, most likely undertaken with the assumption that United will settle out of court. The thing this passenger did not consider however is the clear language in the U.S.’s CFR pertaining to passenger compliance of instructions given by the flight crew. Homeland Security and CBP had more than enough reasonable suspicion to perform even the most invasive searches of these two passengers. And the Montreal Convention language will not trump the CFR in this case, as it’s drafting had zero intent of being applied to an incident such as this one. Another example of many throughout history showing this pattern of behavior…….where there is intent to defraud by deception, and in this case, intentionally causing an incident in order to become “the victem”. Once you become aware of how sophisticated criminals execute scemes of deception for their own financial gain, they become very transparent and are easy to identify.
…and Mr. Maszczynski, what do you mean by:”…’ a visibly Jewish’ passenger who was allegedly subjected to antisemitic abuse by the enraged pilot.”
I’ve been on a flight where someone has been in the bathroom for an extended period of time and passengers brought it to the flight attendants attention. The flight attendants knocked on the door and waited for a response. They also asked through the door if they were OK. In this case, the passenger responded, and the flight attendants left them alone. Can you imagine if this was brought to their attention, and they didn’t do anything? If he didn’t respond, the flight attendants may think that he was in need of medical attention. They also have ways of opening the locked bathroom door. No need to ‘break it down’’. And if a pilot was there, they may have asked for their help. Just more sensationalistic and probably incorrect and incomplete reporting by PYOK.
I have constipation problem and I’ve been to bathroom over 30 minutes. Wish him best with the lawsuit.
IF this story is true.. um, where’s the cell phone videos? All this goes down and not one video from some other passenger?
Doesn’t sound legit.
Then again , this site and author are one step above clickbait anyway ~
The first thing that hit me in this article was, visibly Jewish? Anyway if you’ve ever been on pain medication you get constipated extremely bad and you can spend a long time on the toilet if you don’t take laxatives so for haters that don’t know what they’re talking about maybe keep your comments to yourself. This guy was no threat to anyone sitting on the toilet nobody deserves that kind of treatment. And I sure as hell as one person do not want somebody flying a plane that acts like that pilot did.
A UA pilot will not leave the cockpit except to use the lavatory in first class…but the article does not say which lavatory(s) the customer was using..was it in economy or first class? If it was economy the pilot would have never left the first class area.
So, OVER the Dr. Doa BS. HE WAS ON REPUBLIC AIRLINES THAT HAD A CONTRACT TO OPERATE UA U DER UNITED EXPRESS. HE VOLUNTEERED TO GET OFF THE FLIGHT & THEN LATER RAN BACK I TO THE AIRPLANE WHICH IS CONSIDERED A SECURITY BREACHAS HE IA NO LONGER CONSIDERED A PASSENGER ON THIS FLIGHT. THE “LAW ENFORCEMENT” WERE ALSO BASICALLY AIRPORT SECURITY & NOT CHICAGO POKICE OFFICERS. ANOTHER REPORT MADE BY MEDIA THAT WAS FALSE!!! I AM SURE THERE IS A LOT MORE TO THIS STORY & IF TRUE I AM SURE IS SOMEONE VERY JUNIOR IN THE COMPANY OR A DEI HIRE!!!
And, the headline for the arttical should point out that they were smuggling drugs! How stupid. They brought the drugs to Mexico, couldn’t sell them all, then tried to bring them into the United States. That’s just dumb. Let that shit go. You pulled off one smuggle. How arrogant to think you can then bring them into the USA. He probably had trouble flushing them. Why is it only mentioned that they had illegal pills headed to US customs while caught in the bathroom?
Can’t wait for the pilot’s name to be published.
Pilot was right to pull him out. Who knows if he is assembling a explosive device or doing damage to the plane. his word is he can’t poop but even if poop i stuck, you can pull up pants, go out and back in when it want to come out.
for not even pulling up your pants and unlock the door to respond is stupid.
who knows if he has a kilo of drug he is smuggling with his ass and is why he is in bathroom that long.