Orthodox Family In ‘Retarded Jew’ Spat On Spirit Air Flight To Florida
A Spirit Airlines plane lands at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Image by Joe Raedle / Getty Images
(JTA) — An Orthodox Jewish couple from New York said that a Spirit Airlines attendant harassed them on a flight to Florida, though the company said they ignored safety rules.
Chana and Yisroel Beck and their three infant children boarded the flight to Fort Lauderdale Tuesday from Newark Airport, the New York Post reported Thursday. The couple wanted to take aboard a baby carriage that converts into a seat but a flight attendant firmly told them not to take aboard.
One passenger from Rockland County who is identified in the article only as Binyamin told the Post that the flight attendant used anti-Semitic language, telling a colleague something about “those retarded Jews.”
Another crew member told Yisroel Beck he could not seat with the rest of his family in a three-row seat, with one child on his lap, according to the report. When the plane landed, the couple were escorted by security, detained and questioned. Their return tickets were voided and they were banned from flying Spirit, the couple said.
They said this treatment was unjust and uncalled for.
Spirit spokesman Derek Dombrowski said the Becks have not yet contacted the airline, but that “records indicate that this guest ignored flight and ground crew instructions multiple times, beginning with the boarding process and continuing through landing.”
He said the airline will “launch an investigation and take these matters very seriously.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
