{"id":66729,"date":"2019-01-11T17:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=66729"},"modified":"2019-01-11T10:06:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T08:06:55","slug":"15-00-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=66729","title":{"rendered":"Shocking Verbal Assault on Orthodox Jewish Family"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>\u2018You Could See the Hatred\u2019: Eyewitness Alleges Shocking Verbal Assault on Orthodox Jewish Family by Spirit Airlines Flight Attendant<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Ben Cohen<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The tail of a plane from the fleet of low-cost US carrier Spirit Airlines. Photo: Reuters \/ Regis Duvignau.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

An Orthodox Jew who traveled\u00a0with his wife and small children on Tuesday on board a Spirit Airlines flight from Newark to Fort Lauderdale was allegedly described as \u201cthat retarded Jew\u201d by a member of the cabin crew, following an argument over whether a seat for his one-month-old baby was permitted on board the aircraft.<\/span><\/p>\n

A fellow passenger on the\u00a0early-morning flight\u00a0told\u00a0The Algemeiner<\/em>\u00a0on Thursday that he had overheard the flight attendant complaining about the family to a colleague, angrily\u00a0referring\u00a0to the father as \u201cthat retarded Jew\u201d during the course of his rant.<\/span><\/p>\n

The alleged antisemitic barb\u00a0came at the height of a nightmare journey for the family that\u00a0culminated\u00a0in them being\u00a0forcibly escorted\u00a0off the plane by two armed police officers and two Spirit Airlines representatives\u00a0upon\u00a0landing in Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n

Their experience was made public on Thursday morning by former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represented the Brooklyn district where the family lives for 35 years before retiring last month.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an account of their\u00a0journey provided to Hikind, the couple \u2014 who were traveling with their three-year-old and two-year-old daughters, in addition to the baby \u2014 said that they had been given permission by a gate agent at Newark Airport to take the baby seat on board after demonstrating that it also functioned as a car seat.<\/span><\/p>\n

But after buckling\u00a0the baby into her car seat and taking their own seats on the plane, a female flight attendant informed the couple that the seat was not permitted on board after all.\u00a0During the argument that followed, a male flight attendant, described by the eyewitness to the incident as white and in his late 20s, reportedly ordered the father to \u201cshut up,\u201d while insisting that the baby had to be unbuckled from her seat \u2014 an instruction with which the family complied.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was painful to see,\u201d the eyewitness said in a telephone interview. \u201cIt was a young couple with three\u00a0little kids. They were just out to get them. It was disgusting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The eyewitness said the male flight attendant had become particularly enraged, encouraging the other cabin staff to round on the family. \u201cI saw how it became personal, how the steward was trying to make a whole fight out of it,\u201d the eyewitness said. \u201cHe was trying to get the other staff on his side to say, \u2018No, we\u2019re not gonna give in,\u2019 even though they\u2019d been told the baby seat was allowed on the plane.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During the flight, it was the same male attendant who referred to the father as \u201cthat retarded Jew\u201d while speaking about the family with a colleague, said the eyewitness, who had been\u00a0sitting at the back of the plane near the cabin galley.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like they were out to get\u00a0them.\u00a0<\/em>It was antisemitism,\u201d the eyewitness added. \u201cThe guy was full of hatred. You could see it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the family, that was not the last altercation of the flight. When the father attempted to take the two-year-old on his lap alongside the children\u2019s mother, he was ordered back to his seat by the same male steward, who cited airline safety regulations that forbid five people from sitting in a three-seat row. According to the account provided to Hikind, the father \u201creadily complied and returned to his seat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But when the plane landed, the other passengers were prevented from disembarking for half an hour so that the family could be forcibly escorted off the plane by the police officers and ground staff. When the couple asked what crime they had committed and whether they were under arrest, they were told that they \u201chad not been wearing seat belts.\u201d The staff then informed the couple that they were henceforth banned from flying on Spirit Airlines,\u00a0telling the stunned pair, in a parting shot, to \u201cfind another flight home.\u201d That same evening, the couple got in touch with Hikind and relayed what had occurred.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened with this family was outrageous,\u201d Hikind told\u00a0The Algemeiner<\/em>\u00a0on Thursday. \u201cWhen they were taken off the plane, a husband and wife and their three little kids all crying, they were not told what they did wrong. They were not arrested. And then, when they were told, it\u2019s because of the seat belts. It\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked Hikind: \u201cWas this something\u00a0that warranted two police officers and two agents\u00a0of the airline and keeping the other passengers back for a half-hour? It was traumatic for this family. What happened here was unconscionable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hikind said the flight attendant\u2019s bigoted comment about \u201cthat retarded Jew\u201d was \u201cwhat crossed the line for me, and that\u2019s why we went public with the whole picture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0a prepared statement that was emailed to\u00a0The Algemeiner\u00a0<\/em>on Thursday afternoon, Spirit Airlines said it would investigate the matter, while strongly\u00a0defending the conduct of its staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe safety of our Guests and crew is our top priority,\u201d the statement said. \u201cOur records indicate\u00a0that\u00a0this Guest ignored flight and ground crew instructions multiple times, beginning with the boarding process and continuing through landing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The statement continued: \u201cWhile the Guests have not contacted us with any allegations of discrimination, we will now launch an investigation and take these matters very seriously. Spirit Airlines does not tolerate any form of discrimination. We are extremely proud of the diversity of our team and strive to provide exceptional service to all of our Guests.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The eighth-largest carrier in the US, Spirit Airlines provides ultra low-cost flights in and between\u00a0North America, the Caribbean and Latin America. Famed on the internet for\u00a0poor reviews<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0in which passengers frequently vow to never fly with the airline again, Spirit was America\u2019s lowest-ranked airline in a 2018 survey of more than 50,000 economy-class passengers by\u00a0Consumer Reports<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2018You Could See the Hatred\u2019: Eyewitness Alleges Shocking Verbal Assault on Orthodox Jewish Family by Spirit Airlines Flight Attendant Ben Cohen The tail of a plane from the fleet of low-cost US carrier Spirit Airlines. Photo: Reuters \/ Regis Duvignau. An Orthodox Jew who traveled\u00a0with his wife and small children on Tuesday on board a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66729"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66740,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66729\/revisions\/66740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}