Passengers refuse to wear mask for entirety of flight.
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox passengers reportedly refused to wear masks onboard a United Airlines flight from New York to Tel Aviv without any consequences from the flight crew or law enforcement.
Friday’s flight departed Newark without incident, however, once in the air a number of passengers removed their masks and refused to put them back on.
Tali Tenenbaum, a passenger onboard the flight told Radio 103FM, “the flight was three-quarters full, there were empty seats. In all honesty, in my whole life I have never seen such behaviour, such contempt. We sat for the whole flight in the coronavirus breeding ground because one does not know if they were tested.”
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חשיפת 103fm: חרדים סירבו לעטות מסיכות בטיסת יונייטד איירליינס מניו יורק | טלי, אחת הנוסעות שהיו על הטיסה: “בחיים לא ראיתי זלזול כזה. טיסה שלמה ישבנו במדגרת קורונה. לא אכלנו ולא ישנו – נכנסנו לשירותים כדי לשתות כי פחדנו”. @AnatDavidov
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“People sat without masks for the whole flight, for almost 10 hours. We did not eat, did not sleep. We went into the bathroom to drink because we were afraid to remove our masks.”
In addition to being asked to put face masks back on, the rule-breaking passengers were also told to not congregate to pray – but again were ignored.
Upon landing at Ben Gurion Airport, no action was taken on the unruly passengers, which has drawn criticism of the airline.
United has been blasted for not protecting its abiding passengers and crew by carrying out a diversion to deplane the rule-breakers.
There have been multiple instances of violations among some sectors of the ultra-Orthodox community, particularly in New York.
Last Monday in Brooklyn, thousands of guests had packed into the main synagogue of the faction of Bobov Hasidism on Monday night to celebrate the wedding of the youngest son of Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam, the grand rabbi of the sect.
More from last night’s wedding in Brooklyn, NY.
Some context: The groom is the youngest son of the Bobov Rebbe, Bentzion Halberstam (son of my great-uncle, the Bobov Rebbe Reb Shlomo, who replanted the dynasty in the US after the holocaust), one of the largest Hasidic sects. pic.twitter.com/4YvTxla57m
Oddly, the New York City Sheriff’s Office said the wedding was in compliance with state Covid-19 restrictions, despite pictures and video showing crowds of men packed together with no social distancing or masks.
