El Al Passenger Buys Ticket to L.A., but Ends Up in New York

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Crossposted from Haaretz
A passenger with a ticket for an El Al flight to Los Angeles mistakenly boarded a flight to New York at Ben-Gurion International Airport, and neither he nor the crew discovered the mix-up until the plane had landed in the United States.
The incident, which occurred two weeks ago, exposed several errors: Neither ground crew checking in passengers nor ground crew at the gate noticed that the man’s ticket and boarding pass were not for the New York flight. The routine comparison between the number of passengers present and the number of tickets collected on the Los Angeles and the New York flights before take-off also did not alert them to the error.
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.
, editor-in-chief