Two Israeli passengers forced a plane from New York to turn around and land. According to Israeli media, they clashed with cabin crew after they refused to prove they had business class tickets.
The two passengers were arrested after the plane landed in New York.
The United Airlines night flight departed at 11 p.m. local time Thursday for Tel Aviv, where it was due to arrive Friday afternoon.
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One of the passengers, Eitan Roi, told Israel’s Channel 12 that after about 90 minutes of the flight, an argument broke out between the two Israeli passengers and the cabin crew.
The flight, he said, “was half full and the two passengers in question apparently decided to take advantage of the situation and went to sit in business class”.
When flight attendants asked them for their boarding passes, they refused to comply, he said.
As the dispute escalated, the captain decided to turn around and return to New York.
Video broadcast by Channel 12 shows police boarding the plane to arrest the two Israelis. The other passengers were evacuated from the plane and, according to Eitan Roi, they did not know when they could board another flight to Israel – especially since religious travelers would not have boarded a flight which allegedly landed after the start of Shabbat.
In a statement reported by Channel 12, United Airlines said the safety of its passengers “is above all else” and that the company does not tolerate “inappropriate behavior.”
Several incidents have taken place in recent years, in which unruly Israeli passengers have disrupted flights.
An Israeli was expelled from a flight from Austria in 2015 for unruly behavior and assaulting a flight attendant.
In January 2016, an Israeli passenger caused an Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna to New York to be diverted to Canada.
A year later, a plane from Budapest to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing due to a drunken and disruptive Israeli passenger.
In 2018, ultra-Orthodox passengers on a flight that took off late from New York caused an outcry over fears they would not land until after the start of Shabbat. The flight was forced to land in Greece.
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