Pilot diverts jet to Philadelphia over teen's in-flight prayer
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45 Comments
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0
dontknockit
Human ignorance never ceases to astound me. Jewish prayer ritual. Big deal. No one near him could explain?
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goddog
Was he speaking in Hebrew? Tefillin are very similar to what priests here as well as the Emperor wears during certain rituals, and therefore the Japanese could be another one of the lost tribes. You can read about it on line. Interesting.
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pamelot
Given the climate of air-travel today, a little common sense would not be out of line. Would it have killed this kid to qualm their concerns with a straight answer? Assuming everyone should know, is equally as ignorant, as over reacting because you don't know. Ignorance and arrogance go hand in hand...
0
dontknockit
The article says they were cooperative. Nowhere does it say they failed to give a straight answer. I have had several episodes in my life where straight answers were met with incredulility and disbelief, usually by ignorant people. Have you not had similar experiences?
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neverknow2
Looks pretty clear to me.
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Altria
It certainly sounds like an explosive
No offense, but that's just silly.
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sabiwabi
Well, at least they didn't blow his brains out, as they do in certain places when they see someone with something strapped to their body.
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The758
Remind me not to fly in or out of the US for the next few years until all of this calms down
0
Hawkeye
Oy Vey, This kid is driving me meshuganah. I lived in New York City for 7 years and knew many Jewish people (friends) in my apartment building and at school and have never seen or heard of a tefillin. Perhaps they were holding out on me and not inviting me to the "box tying parties". If I was sitting next to some one that stated tying boxes to their arm (s) and head and reciting some type of hymn in a foreign tongue, I would be very nervous considering the hightened terrorist situations regarding air travel. Why didn't the kid wait till he got off the plane? Where can I buy a set, the 99 cent store in Flatbush?
0
smithinjapan
"He failed to give a clear response".
BS! It's more likely the flight attendants simply failed to listen and gave in to paranoia. I'm glad it was all cleared up at the end and no one charged.
“It’s something that the average person is not going to see very often, if ever,”
No excuse for ignorance... but that tends to lead the way in a lot of people's minds the world over; particularly ignorance and intolerance of other religions.
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bushlover
[Human ignorance never ceases to astound me. Jewish prayer ritual. Big deal. No one near him could explain?]
[BS! It's more likely the flight attendants simply failed to listen and gave in to paranoia.]
Yes look at one comment and then the other one. Human ignorance in the second one. If you can't hold out to do your obscure practices and insist on doing them on an airplane in this day and age you deserve all the suspicion you create. Simple as that Richard.
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bushlover
[No excuse for ignorance... but that tends to lead the way in a lot of people's minds the world over; particularly ignorance and intolerance of other religions.]
So in Canada you gonna let the Sihks carry their daggers on the plane with you and the rest of the passengers? You can't have your cake and eat it too. Sometimes you just gotta conform.
0
Helter_Skelter
Classic. Leave it to a lib to turn this incident into a referendum on religious intolerance. The guy wasn't removed from the plane because of his religion. Having a passenger in a plane strapping on weird boxes and chanting in an unrecognizable language would be understandably disconcerting for those not familiar with this ritual, particularly considering the recent terrorist attempt. I think the Rabbi said it best:
“Security today is a serious issue. You can’t become educated up in the air,” Greenberg said. “I can definitely see a pilot or a crew that never saw it before in today’s environment be very, very concerned.”
0
yabusama
I was on a flight from JFK to Heathrow about 15 years ago. Sitting in the same row on the opposite side of the plane was a Hasidic Jew rocking back and forth in prayer kind of like they do in front of the Wailing wall. I thought he was having an epileptic fit. I'd never seen someone act like he did before. I got out of my seat and told the flight attendant. She told me what he was doing and said she sees it all the time. Sure I felt like a complete idiot but how was I to know if I'd never seen it before?
Same with this crew and passengers. If they never saw this done before how are they to know what he's doing.
As far as not giving a clear answer. If he was in the middle of a prayer he most likely wouldn't interrupt it to explain what he was doing but wait until after he finished.
In today's world any "weird" actions or activity by a passenger on a plane is going to cause excitement and panic.
0
WilliB
What total, absolute idiots. When was the last time a JEW tried to blow up an airplane full of people?
Thats where political correctness gets us.
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Madverts
Each to his own, but you can't expect to taking seriously chanting with a box on your head.
0
delrennich
Since 911 people have needed to act more normal on airplanes. A passenger should sit quietly and read a book, sleep, watch videos, whisper quietly with fellow passengers and/or traveling companions, or, like me, listen to audiobooks on my ipod. Doing anything weird, like binding boxes on your arm and chanting or praying, or getting angry, or anything that is suspicious or disturbing to the crew or passengers will definitely warrant a response.
Also, why should other passengers be forced to watch others performing religious ceremonies in flight? Wouldn't that make anybody flying a little more nervous than they already are? Be aware of others people's mind-space and carry on forthwith quietly, like Buddha. Maybe the crew over-reacted but that kid should have done those prayers at a different time, in a different setting. It's not a problem really about religion or multiculturalism, it's a problem concerning appropriate actions while flying.
Manners For Flying..........a new Betty Crocker Book! :)
0
ShonanMaruNo2
Profiling would have prevented this.
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dontknockit
Sorry, my bad. Inexcusable that I missed that. The article also says:
Put the two conflicting statements together and what I imagine is the crew were ignorant people who could not comprehend the straight answer they received, and rather than face up to their own ignorance, decided the teen must be talking nonsense. I have seen such situations a million times.
0
Beelzebub
If you want to indulge in religious mumbo-jumbo, then go to your mosque, church or synagogue and leave us agnostics to our ignorance.
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Madverts
Beelzebub,
Exactly...
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Taka313
Anyone else think the level of paranoia is a tad high in America?
Taka
0
Sarge
"Anyone else think the level of paranoia is a tad high in America?"
No, just you.
0
SuperLib
Over 40,000 plans have landed in the US in the last 24 hours alone. The only paranoia is the kind that spews from your mouth when a handful of incidents like this happen each month. You don't need to save us, smith. Just move on and get over yourself.
That about sums it up.
0
benhur
better be safe than sorry i supposed. who knows.. may be a fake box with real bomb inside!
0
OssanAmerica
Terrorist Handbook Rule 112 - Dress and act like a Jew. They won't suspect you.
0
Taka313
You can leave. That ought to help.
Taka
0
Madverts
"To assume that a Jew would want to blow up an airplane"
I can see how he could easily have been mistaken for an arab terrorist. That's why the Mossad are good at infiltrating and passing themeselves as arabs.
I'm not sure someone chanting in a middle eastern language strapping things to himself with a box on his head sat next to me on the plane would do anything other than freak me out.
Heh, under any other circumstances though, I suppose I'd just find it un-hinged.
0
YuriOtani
Just another day in the land of the fee. What were those fools thinking about? I would not call this religious intolerance but stupid. Being paranoid is no excuse and since the flight crew was young, inexperienced and probably never been overseas it is only to be expected. Shakes head welcome to the age of paranoia in the land of the fee.
0
tigermoth
Well, lets's see. We've had one guy try to blow up an aircraft with explosive shoes, and another with explosive underwear - is it too much of a stretch that a dude strapping a box on his arm and one on his head might be up to something other than the normal?
Yuri you hate America and Americans so not surprising you would find fault in the reaction. While I do realize that the Japanese are more used to carrying out suprise attacks with aircraft, can you honestly sit there and tell me that if your country had been attacked in the last ten years by group of middle-eastern terrorists who hijacked aircraft and flew them into buildings to kill as many people as they could, and then you had others trying to blow up explosives hidden in their clothing, that someone strapping boxes to parts of their body while chanting in a middle-easter tongue would not arouse any alarm in you what-so-ever?
Perhaps it is ignorant that they didn't just ask him to open the small boxes and show the scriptures inside. I should think that would end it all quite easily. But I wouldn't call it paranoia that they were concerned in the first place. Then if it had turned out to be a real terrorist incident you would all be asking why no one thought it odd that some kid was strapping exposives to his arm and head.
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YuriOtani
tigermoth, I actually like Americans but they are in danger of losing their spirit. The draconian methods used are causing damage to the American spirit. The paranoia and "no tolerance" laws encourage Stupidity. I would of been puzzled about the boxes were but to assume everything not understood is a threat is wrong. America needs to be careful not to follow the road to being a totalitarian state. The America I love believes in the tyranny of the majority. The Constitution of the USA was drafted to protect the minority. These protection are not politically correct but the foundation of American society.
0
tigermoth
You are correct Yuri. The situation we find ourselves in post 9/11 has brought an assault on our beloved Constitution that I think has many Americans extremely uneasy. And it's brought us to the point of rediculous. We can't take nail files or bottles of shampoo on aircraft. We hold people in prisons indefinitely. We restrict rights and freedoms that many of our ancestors died for us to have. We invade countries, kill often innocent people and ruin our economy in difficult wars. Why? Because some fundamentalist a-holes had to come here and ruin it all. And that's why we should hate them with every fibre of our being. And that's why some guy tying boxes to his arm and head causes panic on an airplane.
Perhaps if they had told him to stop and he defiantly kept going, it could have been termed the 'boxer rebellion'. Ah, I crack myself up.
0
Taka313
No, but does a guy strapping a box on his arm and on his head warrant diverting a plane? Are we really that afraid? Couldn't a few questions and a quick frisking have handled this?
Recently, an airport was temporarily closed...over honey. Newark International was recently closed for 6 hours, over a guy walking through an exit door. It just seems like overkill to me.
The terrorists seem to have you all whipped into submission. I'm sorry, but it's too difficult for me to live with that kind of fear. I just don't have the energy it takes to be that afraid of something. I don't know, maybe if I worked out more.
Taka
0
SuperLib
I guess the rabbi is paranoid.
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bushlover
[I'm not sure someone chanting in a middle eastern language strapping things to himself with a box on his head sat next to me on the plane would do anything other than freak me out.] ---- I'm not sure Madverts. I think it's just that your level of paranoia might be a tad high.
[The terrorists seem to have you all whipped into submission. I'm sorry, but it's too difficult for me to live with that kind of fear. I just don't have the energy it takes to be that afraid of something. I don't know,] --- That's you but I and others are glad there are people out there looking out for our safety. I minor incident could take down a plane and affect more than just one person. As inconvenient as it can be I prefer to err on the side of caution.
0
ShonanMaruNo2
I think CAIR should protest.
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peachy871
No one was forced, they have every freedom to turn their heads and look elsewhere...books, video, the window, across the aisle, etc.
The point is not that people had to endure some kid saying his prayers. He was saying his prayers to himself. Not pushing it on anyone else, not forcing anyone to pray alongside him. Just a well-behaved kid minding his own business, really.
But yes, the tefillin is not seen all that often and yes, I agree, it would definitely cause some unease and fear among passengers unfamiliar with it. Even if someone were to have at least an inkling what it is, what's to say that something isn't hidden inside the boxes?
At any rate, the kids explained, the crew probably didn't understand the explanation or weren't sure, but it all worked out in the end. I think erring on the side of safety was the right thing to do. They did their jobs well.
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jason6
Hey, they are starting to ban headscarves and hindu religious knives in public, why should some nutcase with a box on his head be exempt? For all I know it could be some sort of new device for suicide bombing attempts. I find this a welcome counterpoint to the usual censuring of other non-Judeo-Christian religions in America actually. There's nothing anti-semitic about this.
That being said, if you look inside the box and all that's inside is a fictuous book about humans being created by some sorcerer, there shouldn't be something so extreme as a plane diversion. If the believer doesn't allow you to look, then they can take his little box away, divert the plane, and charge him for whatever damages/crimes he has committed.
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