Reader Gregg flags a story on Naked Capitalism, calling for a boycott of Lufthansa, based on a claim that the German flag carrier removed a passenger from a flight for wearing a medical mask. I obviously wasn’t there, but something doesn’t add up.
Continue reading: Lufthansa Calls Police On Passenger For Wearing Mask? I Don’t Buy It…
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You regularly see people wearing masks in Airports and planes...I don't buy it as well.
"I told them that I am not an idiot" - Says a person who believes that they or their relatives can somehow be excluded from encountering one of the most common viruses in the population, even despite using public transportation.
Unfortunately, tens (maybe hundreds) of millions of people now legitimately believe that a thin piece of paper or fabric can protect them from contracting a virus, in spite of that virus being 50 times smaller than the pores in said mask, and in spite of decades of peer-reviewed evidence to the contrary.
Truly delusional. The governments and media of the world have a lot to answer for.
There's probably more to this story. While wearing a mask in 2025 may be the height of stupidity but said person would not be bothering anyone. Just amusement for the rest of us. But again I think there's more to this story.
I fly Lufthansa alot and i see people wearing masks all the time. No issues. Take the local trains or subway in Munich and you'll see people wearing masks. Nobody bothers.
There's no merit to this non-story.
You have no idea what you're talking about. That is not how mask filters work.
While virus particles are smaller, the mask is not designed to protect against virus particles just floating around by themselves in the air.
Viruses generally float around in droplets from people sneezing or other mechanisms. Those droplets ARE large enough (median size 1 μm) to be filtered out by an N95 or at least dramatically reducing the amount that gets through. It doesn't have to be zero.
An N95 mask filters 95% of particles down to 0.3μm in size. Many of these particles are attracted to each other due to electrostatic forces. This increases their effective size and thus their odds of being filtered.
So while a coronavirus may be 0.125μm by itself, the reality is that the particles actually being filtered are larger.
Irrespective of what anyone feels about masks, it's not uncommon to see people in airports and on aircraft wearing a mask. And, I can't imagine an airline requiring someone to remove a mask or calling the police to remove a person who is wearing a mask. Something doesn't seem right about this story.
The way the person writes his side of the story sounds like he was looking to manufacture a fight and subsequent controversy, and somewhat enjoys the attention.
Someone who is still participating in the covid lockdown half a decade after it ended is a sociopathic attention whore? No way!
It is really stupid not to wear a mask. All the other passengers should be banned from LH.
When you have surgery, do you want your surgeon and nurse to be coughing on your open body cavity?
It is incredibly stupid to wear a mask in 2025. They do not prevent you from contracting a virus, nor from transmitting a virus to another person.
They are merely a signal of one’s political beliefs. The left-wing MAGA hat.
None of what you said is true, but that’s fine.
The larger issue is that COVID-19 has always been a nothing burger for 99.9% of the population. That is even more the case now, that virtually everybody on the planet has had it multiple times.
And before you start blathering on about “long covid” (which doesn’t exist), just…don’t.
2020 is over. Your side lost.
This is a racist myth. In fact, masks were relatively rare in Asia before 2020. It is as a result of relentless scare tactics from Asian governments, and the Confucian tendency toward groupthink and fear of stepping out of line, that huge swathes of people in Asia refuse to leave home without their face diapers on.
Actually all of what was said is true in relation to the N95 mask. Funny nobody mentioned 'sides' until you did.
Lucky, Expecting videos is a risky business!
In September 2020, peak COVID, when masking was mandatory, I was seated up front on a AA regional jet. Across from me was an unmasked deadheading pilot. I asked the flight attendant to ask him to mask up. He refused. My mistake was snapping a photo, which I intended to send to AA customer service.
I was almost immediately kicked off the plane. The gate supervisor was apologetic and provided a hotel room and meal allowance.
I would NEVER take video or photos of airline employees.
Oh grow up. It's normal in many cultures to wear a mask to avoid getting and spreading shit.
Lufthansa seems to have a resting hostility towards their customers in general, much more so when they push back even politely to mistreatment. So with skepticism, I'm inclined to believe this passenger with a grain of salt for the kind of embellishment that many of us engage in (inadvertently or intentionally) when we go through a bad experience.
Those that can't give up the ghost of COVID. It gave them meaning and belonging to their sad lives.
Yeah because screw people who have compromised immune systems? Clearly they're just stupid . Ignorant prick.
The mask wearer sounds like a teenager explaining how he "did nothing wrong" in high school today, but got suspended anyway.
I wear a mask all the time, and as a student of a related science, there is indeed very good reason to do so while travelling. I have never been challenged on a flight while wearing one, especially not on Lufthansa (whom I find to be exceptionally professional about it). Occasionally some, like the commenters here who wish that Covid would be over (wishing does not make it so), or are triggered by the sight of my mask, seek to challenge me about it.
Perhaps as the cognitive dissonance of knowing they continue to put themselves at higher risk is too painful to bear, so they lash out at the most convenient target: those who continue to seek to protect themselves. My wearing a mask has absolutely no impact on you, except perhaps to slightly protect you in case I have a flu or another virus. It can certainly cause you no harm, with the exception of the aforementioned cognitive dissonance.
Which I will agree, can be truly painful ailment indeed.
But in any case I have no doubt that we are not hearing the whole story here, as this is completely inconsistent with everything I’ve seen onboard.
“Mask up” is an expression that NPCs use to feel like they’re taking action by acquiescing.
1) That’s an oversimplification of the reasons people wear masks (most having nothing to do with disease).
2) This person is clearly not just acting in the best interests of others.
Idan clearly shows us that what we’ve really lost is kindness, empathy and generosity of spirit. Cruelty is a feature now because people like Idan think they can’t be better off unless someone else is made to suffer/lose.
@derek Surgeons were masks to avoid getting moisture in wounds. Has nothing to do with viruses.
But thanks for letting us know you support a permanent mask mandate.
Maybe the mask had threatening or inappropriate writing on it and the person was asked to remove it on those grounds
I think that for a lot of people, March of 2020 was the best time in human history.
They look forward to a day when we can all be locked at home for months at a time (or maybe permanently) again.
How many people died because they refused to wear a mask?
(Spoiler alert: The answer is zero.)
My wife is a physician. The doctors in her office wear masks when there is reason to believe patient has a respiratory illness because that is accepted medical practice.
Masks dramatically reduce the spread of viruses. You don't know what you are talking about.
If airlines could choose to force everybody to wear a mask a few years ago, which many did even without government mandates, then airlines also have the right to forbid mask wearing or?
He's a blogger and a wanna-be influencer, just seeking attention and clicks.
He's also a complete a-hole and deserves to be thrown off planes, but I guess that's redundant given the above.
I don't believe they offer surgery on Lufthansa, even in the First Class lounge.
Idan " They do not prevent you from contracting a virus, nor from transmitting a virus to another person.
Not true. Lots of doctors and nurses were working in Covid wards and wore masks. They did not get sick or die.
People are still dying from Covid. Far more than from airline crashes. If fact, if one had to chose between wearing a seat belt on the flight and mask, choose the mask.
@Idan, you wrote "The left-wing MAGA hat"
Not true. There are MAGA supporters that wear masks. It's not a left-wing MAGA hat. In fact, more left-wingers don't wear masks than MAGA people who wear masks. Therefore, not wearing a masks shows that you are a Communist or left-winger, ha ha.
Just for the record, I'm Asian myself.
Actually masks were already a thing pre-COVID. I've noticed masks since SARS which was in 2003 as far as I can remember. Then you had the H1N1 epidemic where even the cabin crew where wearing masks and gloves. And even in between, masks among the Asian populace were commonplace on flights. And it's not even among the Chinese community.
This incident seems redundant in that there are already plenty of reasons to boycott 'Luftwaffe ' !!.. Sounds more like an attitude/ego problem between staff & pax that escalated because neither side wanted to back down and in the end the captain/airline will always win .,,
If he wasn't wearing a mask prior to 2020, then yes, he has a mental health issue. Or he's just a moron.
So I was having multiple optical illusions when a saw many many people wearing masks in Tokyo in 2019?
Tell me what else I saw that didn't happen.
People that still wear masks deserve to be ridiculed and made to change. They have serious mental health issues. Live life people!
COVID is over! It is a relatively weak respiratory disease that will continue but nothing to worry about. People that wear masks are weak and have major issues. I immediately lose respect for anyone wearing a mask
Or, as in my family, undergoing chemo.
I really have difficulty understanding why people are bothered by someone masking.
Sorry, I live in one of NYC's Chinatown neighborhoods and masks were common for decades.
You wasted our time with this story (and many of the responses). Much fact-checking should occur before this nonsense gets disseminated. What’s the WHOLE story here?
I agree, I suspect the issue was with the particular mask he was wearing rather than his desire to want to wear a mask generally. Was he wearing a ski mask type head garment that robbers sometimes wear? Was there a message or design on it that someone could reasonably construe as intimidating? Was it a medieval plague mask? Seems like there’s someone wearing a medical mask on half of my flights these days, and I’ve never seen the crew react to it.
People didn't use smartphones prior to 2000 either, so yes you also have a mental health issue. Or you are just another moron.
Except he is up against cabin crews.
Notorious for their authoritarian power trip and so paranoid “making the crew uncomfortable”.
Abusing unchecked power seems to follow the common theme.
Is it because of overlooking, I don't think so. They would kick him out anyway even if he's the only passenger onboard.
This guy sounds like someone who whines on Twitter about people who haven't continued to live in isolation after 2020, I have encountered these types and almost guarantee he provoked the situation. A German airline is the last place I see a flight attendant harassing someone over wearing a mask, maybe in the US, but no way in Germany.
So many people questions wearing masks.
I guess you've never been to Japan neither does those crews.
Yes and the incredible thing is that _your_ side refuses to take the win and move on to your next freedom-based struggle. Congrats and all that. While you’re celebrating your victory over people wearing a piece of fabric on their faces, you might take a minute to actually educate yourself on how an N95 mask works, what the comparative size of coronavirus and droplets are, and what studies have confirmed re: long Covid. Just because something is inconvenient doesn’t make it wrong, brother.
Yes Julia of course the “real” racism is not your statement about Confucian groupthink in Asian societies. It is the obvious and widely apparent fact that people across the Asian diaspora wore face masks prior to Covid-19. Like Idan, you seem to be another person whose side has won the war against kindness yet refuses to take the victory.
Main difference in the analogies being that masks existed for decades prior to 2020.
I don't have to wish for covid to be “over.” It is a benign virus that has had zero impact on most people’s lives in years. Live in a permanent pandemic fantasy if you want, but the majority of humanity moved on a long time ago.
Where in the world did masks reduce the number of covid cases? In fact, many of the countries with the highest masking rates and longest mask mandates had the highest case counts.
Covidism is a truly bizarre religion.
Eh?
Did you ever live in East Asia before 2020?
In Japan and HK for two, it has been standard for decades to wear a mask if suffering from a cold to reduce the transmission to other people.
@Idan
Well, plenty of people died from Covid.
Although it does seem that lockdowns were "too effective" in that many people do not know anybody who died from Covid. I knew four.
And a man in their 40's relative of a friend died only this year from it - I presume because not vaccinated, rather than from not wearing a mask.
Arguably the significance of masks is for not transmitting diseases to others, rather than protecting oneself.
Lufthansa threatened me to call police in 2020 when i moved mask from nose temporary to breath in fresh weather
What did it say on the mask? Swastika. Or something else that America would consider freedom of speech but that is a felony in Germany?
Your statement isn’t true. As someone who calls SE Asia his second home, ‘Asians’ were wearing masks way before 2020, especially to combat hazardous pm2.5 levels in larger cities.
Idan, I assume you're subscriber to Breitbart news? Surgeons wearing masks does not have shot to do with humidity, it is because the oral cavity is filled to the brim with bacteria and the act of speaking is aerosol producing.
Idan where did you go? We're all waiting to hear your response?
Nothing you say? Just spout that masks don't work then when confronted with why they do you ghost us? That's not very sporting.
As someone who visiting Japan on business numerous times starting in the late 1970's I can say from personal observation that you are incorrect.
The passenger's own telling of the incident seems pretty bad - a super-aggressive response ("mind your business, go do your job and leave me alone") to a question from crew is a quick ticket to being removed from a flight. Not sure why anybody, not under the influence, would act that way towards cabin crew...
I don't believe the story whatsoever.
Every flight I've been on recently had people wearing masks. Mostly no, but a few do on every flight.
Ben, I join you in thinking that there's an untold part to this story, for these reasons:
1. Lufthansa cabin crew has always been consistently polite and well-meaning, in an endearing old-fashioned staid sort of way that builds confidence that there are multiple formidable barriers to their being less than polite. They went outside normal procedure to give me a large bottle of water when I was thirsty, to find an empty row in Economy for me to sleep in, to offer wine proactively even though it was far from the best (main hub FRA being almost in the famed and affordable Rheinhessen viticultural area, which LH didn't offer Economy passengers). Years ago when I flew Economy they made it a bit or two less awful. So I cannot imagine the rude gang-up the claimant describes.
2. I last was in Germany in 2023, in DB ICE First Class, and made my way to the crowded vestibule near the door to be ready to alight at a connecting station (Köln Messe/Deutz). The train was still moving. There was a Wehrmacht soldier in uniform standing there, who politely reminded me to put my mask on (this still being the legal requirement in Germany but no longer in any neighbouring country). I put it on of course and thanked him for the reminder. The point is that masks have only recently stopped being required in Germany and German-flagged vehicles traversing foreign territory.
People in Japan and other Asian countries have worn face masks for decades when suffering from a cold. It’s not a recent phenomenon.
Wow. Perhaps you’re just shit posting for “LOLs” but if you’re serious your remark wins the internet for most ignorant comment of 2025. Covid has killed literal millions of people and left millions more with long-term, perhaps permanent disability and you call that “benign”? A Cambridge University study estimated the world wide economic cost to be over 82 Trillion (yes, trillion with a “T”) over five years. I contracted COVID for the fourth time last month and it was rough. Four days in bed. Sick/off for over a week, two weeks to mostly recover to the point I could resume exercising again. I also had to spike a trip to visit my family and eat the cost on airfare, car rental and AirBnB beach house. The whole thing sucked. My wife and I got it at a party that was a super spreader event. Seemed like about half the people there got it. Research shows Covid greatly affects heart, lungs and brain long after an individual “recovers”. It greatly increases risk of autoimmune dysfunction and even cancer. Everyday it seems scientists learn something new about Covid that makes it seem even worse. People with type O blood and low ACE2 levels with certain genetic polymorphisms are much less susceptible to Covid. Everyone I know who has never had the virus at this point has type 0 blood. Maybe you’re one of these lucky people? Type A blood is the most susceptible. You can mask, not mask or you can believe that Covid is no more dangerous than puppy kisses but the virus doesn’t give a f#%k what you believe. It’s going to keep spreading and making people sick for the foreseeable future. It’s definitely not over. People with any kind of brains will continue to seek to avoid infection if they know what is good for them. Odds of long Covid rise to about one in three by your third infection. Risk keeps climbing after that. Go read a book or a medical journal for Christ sake. Your ignorance is burning my eyes even through this screen.
I fly LH on 3-4 segments per month. During covid, FA's wearing masks ensured everyone wore a mask, including handing out masks upon entry.
Since removal of mandatory wearing of masks, a handful of people on every flight continued to wear masks. NEVER Once has any LH FA told someone to remove their masks.
I call B. S. on the blogger who said this.
And I strongly disagree with Ben's reporting of this, especially with his scepticism that this event even happened.
When you come out of your mother's basement consider this.
No one, ever, said that wearing a mask would prevent you from getting covid. They all said that it could minimize the risk of airborne virus infecting you.
I once got on a plane having recently recovered from a bad cold. I wore a mask out of consideration for other passengers. Last I did this, I put it on after we took off. If it bothered others, not my problem as I was doing the. A favour.
Uhm, I do hope you mean Bundeswehr soldier, not Wehrmacht – the Wehrmacht (the armed forces of Nazi Germany) stopped existing in 1945.
And that must have been very early in 2023, the mask requirement in DB trains ended on February 2, 2023.
Just to add, Asians have a strong emphasis on family and community. So if they they feel like they need to protect each other by wearing a mask, they will.
Agreed, this situation makes absolutely no sense.
For starters, the crew wouldn’t have been tasked with offloading customers. That is the sole responsibility of the ground staff at the gate. And knowing Germans, they would not do this as it’s not following the proper procedures.
My assumption is, probably a crew member approached the guest to ask if they were alright, maybe assuming they were ill due to the mask, and then the customer immediately got aggressive, which made the crew uncomfortable.
Their entire wording of the situation seems very aggressive, and immature.
My guess it he was offloaded because of his behaviour, and not the mask.
@Eskimo who is people? I had one. I guess you were just too broke.
@Idan yup, what were the top 2 use cases?
Sadly, most of the commenters here would seem to support such a measure. So many people here are still scared shitless of covid, and think everything governments did in the name of it was justified.
Ah yes Japan, which in spite of having one of the world's highest masking rates had tens of millions of covid cases, and carries one of the world's worst flu burdens every year.
@Alonzo Concealing identity for crime, and surgeons not spitting or breathing into wounds, baby!
Lmao, coming from the person who was birthed because his Mom got an Eskimo creampie. Sloppy af boiiiiiiii
Sorry, but y'all are wrong on 2 points. 1) Asian masking doesn't generally have anything to do with illness or being considerate; it's about hiding one's identity and not having to do make-up for ladies and 2) Masking wasn't anywhere near current rates, which is some places are still 40-50% of all people at all times. Before, masks were scattered and occasional, as they are in the West now.
A bunch of orientalist bigs, the lot of you.
The comments on this post are horrifying. Clearly, when the next "pandemic" hits, millions of people will be bent over, ready to take whatever governments force them to do.
I agree. I am surprised that ppl reading a travel blog are apparently scared to leave their houses without a face hijab.
Sadly, it seems like you and I are in the minority. Many here seem to share his perspective.
This is typical online click bate. etc.. I say this is a thing the never happened... What report??? what flight number, when. details... It's almost like lets target an airline and make up a story... 1. People wear masks all the time on LH and other airlines.. 2. there is more to the story.. 3. there is no story
No idea what started this, but I think I know why they booted him…
“I told them to leave me alone and to go do whatever they have to actually do as their job and to stop bothering me”
“I told them to leave me alone and stop bothering me”
“I told them that I am not an idiot, but a professional who knows very well what he is doing, and that they should also go back to doing their job, which certainly does not feature harassing passengers”