PHILADELPHIA [CBS] — A plane from New York's La Guardia Airport was diverted to Philadelphia after a teenage passenger put on a religious item disrupting the flight Thursday morning.
Video – Tefillin Prompts Scare On Plane
PHILADELPHIA [CBS] — A plane from New York’s La Guardia Airport was diverted to Philadelphia after a teenage passenger put on a religious item disrupting the flight Thursday morning.
Authorities say, Chautauqua Airlines flight 3079 from LaGuardia to Louisville was diverted to Philadelphia after a 17-year-old male strapped on a “tefillin” for prayer purposes after takeoff.
Philadelphia police say a female flight attendant had never seen tefillin before, which has two small black boxes with black straps attached to them and one box was placed on his head and the other tied to his arm. The attendant became alarmed and reported it.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says they were notified of a “disruptive passenger” on the plane and as a result was diverted to Philly.
The plane that departed LaGuardia at 7:25 a.m. landed in Philadelphia at 8:50 a.m. and the teen and his 16-year-old sister were met by Homeland Security and the Philadelphia Police Bomb Squad.
“Per standard procedures, TSA and law enforcement personnel met the flight. The disruptive passenger was interviewed, the plane was swept with negative findings,” said the TSA.
Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan said the passenger was “completely cooperative.” After being removed from the plane, the teen explained it was a religious device and officers determined it was “harmless” and was of no threat.
The commuter plane operated by Chautauqua Airlines under the US Airways name was occupied by 15 passengers who according to sources were unaware of the incident.
The plane was allowed to then continue to the gate where the passengers were interviewed by the F.B.I. and other federal authorities.
No charges have been filed and Chief Inspector Sullivan praised the work of the agencies involved. “Our emergency response plan worked perfectly,” he said.
:)
Shlomie?
Open your eyes USA
“Our emergency response plan worked perfectly,” really means we are ignorant of everything and pick on little kids. This is not the first time, they are so dumb, doesnt anyone train these people. Now we have to coordinate shachris times with flight schedules so that we can get there faster, othewise we will land up on the 9 o clock news
idiots
how stupid!
Another gift from Hashem!
When I first heard this reported on the radio, right when it happened, the reporter said it was “boxes with electric wires coming out of it” which the passenger had on his fingers and then put around his head!
I knew right away it was someone being ignorant over tefillin! How on earth would a set (or two, if it’s a Lubavitcher) of Tefillin make it through security, and then suddenly appear “suspiciously” once the passenger is on the plane!!!!!
It was upsetting to me to hear, on the radio, that they had been “taken into custody” upon leaving the plane, however. Was EVERY professional that dealt with them totally clueless about tefillin, from stewardess, to other staff on the plane, to airline personnel (over the radio system while the flight was still in the air) to the airport personnel at the airport in Philadelphia, to the law enforcement authorities who took them into custody?
I’m so glad these teens were “completely cooperative”.
I once was required to remove my sheitel, about a year after 911, when I was traveling by myself, with my round trip ticket having been booked on two different airlines (a red flag). The security lady, who had escorted me to behind a screen where there was full privacy, was very sweet and seemed embarrassed to have to have me do this. I don’t even mind that this happened to me, as I felt safer afterward, knowing that these kinds of precautions were being taken.
Now, please Hashem, we’ve now had the best “public awareness” campaign about Tefillin! I’m sure that at least one Yid in the world (and probably much more than 1!) will think about this mitzvah, and perhaps get curious and look into it more, and ultimately, some of those will do it!
I bet “tefillin” (or “tefilin” with one “l”) will become a “frequent search” on Google and Yahoo for the next few days, Baruch Hashem!
out-of-towner
Olfactories? He obviously meant to say phylacteries. This is nuts. There should be some diversity training of flight crews. The poor kid!
CAUTION
lets just hope no terrorist decides to use a pair of tefilin to hide his “toys”.
The Times We Live In...
Because of the times we live in, every religious Jew should use his common sense and know when to use his Tefillin in public. I agree with #6 that if G-d forbid a terrorist decides to act as a religious individual and hides within the “Batim” XXXXXXX it would not only put everyone at risk but the consequences for the Frum community would be Chas Veshalom of enormous proportions. So use your Saichel when flying and Daven before or after a flight and try not to be machmir during a time when one needs to be….
typical
and if it was a black or a muslim, guaranteed they would have called it racist and sued the airline and the stewardess for millions of dollars,
Pentax
Caution. That is exactly what I was thinking when I read “out of towner”’s comment.
mivtzoim tefilin!!:)
This is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the rebbe always said we have to do mivtzoim!!
this is the best one ever!!lol
gods right hand man
your ignorant comments are really a cause of chillull hashem and don’t represent the majority opinion
if you want to be understood you gotta understand
arrogance is a catalyst for revelations of abominations/toava
Cincinnati Yeshiva
Was this boy on his way to Yeshiva in Cincinnati?
Levi
Com´on, They did right, so did the bocher!
They don´t have to know about every sigle religion! What they were suposed to do? Leave him!
Next thing you know a arab will wheare a “thick belt” and say it´s his religion!
Well done!
Better safe than strafe! (uops! I just made it up!)
TO THE TIMES WE LIVE IN
You are so stupid… Do you know how many times people asked me about Ydishkeit (not only Goim) because I weared them in public?!
And what do you do if it´s a 15 hours flight?
Levi
a neighborhood resident
They say ignorance is no excuse! this flight crew should be suspended the airline fined & sued for racial discrimination that is exactly what it was By the way Does this flight attendant live on Mars??? that would be about the only place where they never heard or seen a pair of tefillin was or what they’re used for!!!
I smell a nice lawsuite
All airline employees and TSA professionals are instructed about Tefelin in as part of their training which is approved by the FAA. Someone must have slept through that section and felt it was not important. Someone please get this kid a lawyer, it gotta be worth a couple of hundred grand in a settlement with the airlines
crazy world
poor kids is all I have 2 say
Be fair
Don’t under estimate the ignorance of the public outside NYC
But in fairness this was a small airline and “IF” the crew never saw tefillin before with all that is going on today it is no wonder they would do what they did.
YA
Where’s the ACLU when you need them?
cher
there have been a few times allready when i had to wear tefilin on a plane.usually before i do it i tell the flight crew about it & explain to them what it is.it would have been a good idea to explain it to the flight crew in advance before doing it.
ImperialEagle
Unfortunately the crew of that aircraft were clearly stuck on stupid. If that had happened to my children I would have been outraged. Hopefully US(eless)Air and its subsidiaries will make an effort to educate its employees.
it happens
Although i dont really love davening on planes, it happens that you have no other option.
I was once flying on a plane, had my tefilin on, and a lady in front of me, started screeming HELP… HELP ….HELP , Flight attendent HELP.
The lady thought i was a guy ready to blow the plane… the whole plane turned arround,, most people started laughing, a few people got scared, but this lady finnaly kept quit, when a flight attendent came over, and told her, its OK, boy was this lady embarresed…
Yes, some people in America dont know what tefilin is, and sometimes, they can make such BIG mistakes.
Many security checks also can question you, what is the teflin and drive you crazy. small cities which dont have so many Jewish people dont know about these things so well, it should be in the training, but it seems that it isnt, or perhaps they just didnt pay attention when being trained…
the flight attendent should have thought twice, pretty dumb to behave this way.
If i would be that boy, I would write a good letter explaining the discomfort i had, and that I want to make sure agents should know better in the future.
Zev
Tefillin is something that PROTECTS.
if only they knew.
if only they knew that they in fact had a strong spiritual involvement on that flight – they would have realized how fortunate they were.
Goyim are not smart at all.
device ?!
device? attached to his arm?!
they make it sound like some kind of medical thing!
…twas wrappedd aroundd his arm!!
Mendel
This was a big big big kiddush Hashem. All the not frum teens who were at my program tonight were talking very excitably about the teffillin. It was amazing! This guy did lots of Mivtzoyim without realizing it. Yaasher Ko’ach. And to those who say not to wear tefillin in public, just want to say Jewish pride means being proud of the MITZVOT. Moshiach now!!
Craig Winchell
BS”D
No, he wasn’t on his way to yeshiva in Cincy, he was on his way to his bubbie’s house in Louisville, with his sister, to be met by his cousin. I only know this because I’m his cousin’s father. The boy learns at MTA and his sister at the coordinate sister school (Central,I believe,in Queens), and his cousin learns at Ner Israel in Baltimore, and they all had bein hazmanim at the same time, so my mom invited them to converge on her house for a break. And the rest is history. So while the kids were traumatized somewhat, they’ll eventually get over it. Meanwhile, tefilin are in the news. My son even gave several interviews about tefilin, what they are, and how they are worn. Many Jews out there have never heard of them, much less the goyim- it’s esoterica, and unless one sees it in shul, very unlikely to see people wearing tefilin, except very occasionally in an airport or even more rarely, on flights. So this is an opportunity for people to learn- for the goyim to learn more about Judaism, and for Jews to learn that we’re still in gallus.
HC
Will Barrack Obama come out and say that the TSA (thousands standing around) acted “stupidly?”
Did everyone forget that the tiffilin went through the security x-rays?
Tell newscaster Ukee Washington that I would be more fearful of him than a young main wearing teffilin
Chani
bs’d
Firstly, you’d all be shocked to find out what passes through security. Newark has a very high security, but many other states do NOT, and even so, things can slip through the cracks, and it’s been known that many security personel are bribed off to pass items. Secondly, this has happened before, friend of mine were aressted and questioned for hours by the FBI after their flight was forcefully landed in unplanned territory after he put on his Tallis and tefillin, where the stewardess assumed the same, and told the pilot. I think, for waht it actually causes to emergency landing, that they should be trained in knowing a little about some religions, and not panic as such. Yes, they should definitely improve on airport security, which is not up to par as many of you think
Tell crew beforehand
I was once on Amtrak, ready for Shachris. Having heard of an airplane tefillin mis-understanding (a couple of years ago), I told one of the ticket-takers what I was about to do and why. He said, “Thanks for telling us that.”