A Frontier Airlines flight from Miami to New York La Guardia Airport was canceled Sunday night after a large group of passengers, including several adults, refused to wear masks, the airline said.
On Monday morning, the airline faced accusations of anti-Semitism for treating the passengers, who are Hasidic Jews, as well as the demands for an investigation by the Anti-Defamation League of New York and other groups. Frontier steadfastly maintained its position that the passengers refused to comply with the federal rules requiring them to wear masks.
Several cell phone videos that surfaced do not show the confrontation that took place between the passengers and the crew members of the Frontier, but only the aftermath. On the video recordings from inside the plane, it appears that members of the group are wearing masks. Some passengers said the episode increased because only one member of the group, a 15-month-old child, did not wear one.
Videos of the passengers leaving the plane amid chaos captured by other people on the flight were posted on Twitter by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council. In one video, a passenger says, “This is an anti-Semitic act.”
In another video, a couple can be seen holding a maskless baby in a car seat as children can be heard crying and a woman explained that the young children in their group, who were sitting in the back of the plane have, removed their masks to eat.
In a third video, says a passenger ‘This is Nazi Germany’ as the couple with the young child rides in the aisle of the plane in the direction of the exit.
A Frontier Airlines spokesman said in a statement that a large group of passengers had repeatedly refused to comply with the US government’s federal mask mandate.
“Several people, including several adults, were repeatedly asked to wear their masks and refused to do so,” spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz said. ‘Based on the continued refusal to comply with the federal mask mandate, refusal to disembark from the aircraft and aggression against the flight crew, local law enforcement officers were involved. The flight was eventually canceled. ”
But members of the group said they were wearing masks.
“We are law-abiding citizens, law-abiding people,” said Martin Joseph, who was traveling with 21 members of his family, including his children and grandchildren. “We have small children. We understand that the mask must be worn and that everyone must wear a mask and that is the law. We meet one million percent. ”
Mr. Joseph said his daughter and her husband were sitting in the back row with their 15-month-old child and two other couples and their children. Mr. Joseph said they were all Hasidic Jews, although he added that one of the couples was not related to him.
He said an air hostess asked his daughter to put a mask on her baby. She argued that her son did not need to wear a mask due to his age. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention only requires masks for airline passengers who are at least 2 years old.
“Then they announced that all three couples in the back of the plane had to leave the plane before taking off,” he said. Joseph said. “The babies cried, people cried and the mothers cried.”
Another passenger on the plane, Temima Stark, said she was sitting with her husband and child when the commotion started. According to her, airline workers saw the passengers approaching from behind. Everyone apparently wore masks, she said, except the baby who ate.
As the passengers got off the plane, Ms. Stark, who did not travel with the group, said he saw airline employees. Various other passengers interviewed on video repeat the claim. Frontier Airlines did not directly comment on the allegation.
“The whole plane just went crazy,” she said.
A few minutes after they left, Ms. Stark said the remaining passengers were ordered off the plane.
On Monday, the New York Anti-Defamation League asked for a “complete and transparent investigation” on Twitter, referring to “apparent #antisemitic comments by crew or others.”
Asked about the allegations of anti-Semitism, Ms. Frontier spokesman De la Cruz said the airline was assessing “every situation where a passenger has to be removed from a flight”.
“Like many other airlines, Frontier has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to masks on our flights,” she said. This is made clear during the purchase, before and during the check-in process, at the gate and on board the aircraft. ”
Masking and other social health measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus became a hotbed in the New York area during the summer, as Covid-19 began to spread rapidly through parts of Brooklyn and Queens. City health officials said at the time that they were particularly concerned about a clear increase in the distribution of some of the city’s Hasidic communities. Similar tensions have arisen in Israel.
Asked about the confrontation aboard the Frontier flight, Yossi Gestetner, a founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, said that ‘no matter what may have led to the beginning of this whole mess, accusing people that airline personnel do so. definitely unacceptable and must be addressed. ”
‘The airline wants the public to believe that 12 people, some not related to each other, except because they were in the same ethnic group, walked into the airport and walked to the plane in masks and left with masks, such as seen on videos but decided to be collaborative. remove all masks while sitting, ”he said. “That’s logical.”