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Delta & KLM sued for alleged anti-Semitic discrimination.
19 Orthodox Jewish girls, from a group of 54, is suing Delta and KLM for religious discrimination after they were denied boarding twice last summer for violating Covid-19 protocols.
The group of young women and their chaperones were prevented from boarding a flight traveling from Amsterdam to New York for reportedly eating outside of designated mealtimes on an earlier flight.
The group claim their innocence saying that airline personnel never informed them that they were not adhering to the mask requirements.
The girls also say that other passengers were not disciplined for similarly eating outside of mealtime and so the women were singled out “solely for the purpose of unlawfully harassing plaintiffs because of their Jewish race, ethnicity, and/or religion.”
As the group spent the night at the airport awaiting the next day’s flight, US Senator Chuck Schumer reportedly advocated on behalf of the group and the issue was escalated all the way up to Delta chief executive Ed Bastian.
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A new flight on a Delta plane was arranged by Bastian’s own executive assistance for the following day.
Incredibly, the group were booted off that flight too for allegedly swapping seats with other passengers and “misbehaving” prior to takeoff.
After the group refused to get off the plane, Delta reps deplaned the entire aircraft.
Another offer from Bastian’s office to rebook the group for the third day was rejected because it would have required them to fly on Shabbat. Instead, the group took a train to Belgium where they spent Shabbat, before flying to New Jersey.
The complaint said that the plaintiffs accused Delta of discrimination and treated the group “differently and worse than non-Jewish passengers”
The group of girls are now asking for compensatory and punitive damage and, per the complaint, for Delta and KLM to comply with US federal and state anti-discrimination law and to be prohibited from “discriminating on the basis of race, ethnicity and religion, and in particular, discriminating against Jewish persons.”
A Delta Air Lines spokesperson told Insider by email: “While Delta has no specific comment on this pending litigation, compliance with flight crew member instructions for the safety and well-being of everyone is paramount.
“Delta also has zero-tolerance for discrimination in any form in all aspects of our business.”
