EL AL has been in the news a lot the past few days regarding last Thursday’s flight from New York to Tel Aviv.
Here are the two posts I’ve written about this:
- EL AL Flight Diverts Over Shabbat Curfew
- How An EL AL Captain Tricked Passengers Into Taking A Flight
If you want all the details check out those posts, but essentially what happened is that an EL AL flight from New York to Tel Aviv was delayed by hours due to a snowstorm in New York, and this meant that the flight would arrive in Israel after the start of Shabbat, which was a big no-no for many passengers.
The flight ended up diverting to Athens so that it could land before sunset. Furthermore, it’s clear that the EL AL captain tricked passengers into taking the flight. Once the plane started taxiing some passengers realized there’s no way the plane could land in Israel before sunset. He told them the plane would return to the gate, but then a couple of minutes later the plane took off.
The topic on which there are still differing opinions is how passengers on this flight acted. Some passengers, and EL AL, have claimed that some passengers on the flight became violent. EL AL has even threatened to file police reports. Meanwhile other passengers claim that there was no violence, but rather just frustration and raised voices.
Well, this story is far from over, it seems. It’s now being reported that about 180 passengers who were on EL AL’s New York to Tel Aviv flight that diverted to Athens are suing. The entire lawsuit is for nearly 2.5 million USD, as the passengers are demanding a refund for their tickets as well as 50,000 shekels (~$13,500) in damages.
They’re also demanding that the airline publicly admit that claims of passenger violence were false.
It will be interesting to see how this unfolds…
(Tip of the hat to @shaulypaley)
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