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.”
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
