Jewish Passenger Removed For Gaza Comments: Airline Confusion And Viral Video Fuel Debate – View from the Wing

By /

A Jewish passenger was removed from a flight, that based on video appears to be on JetBlue. Although it’s identified on social media as American Airlines. There are very few American Airlines narrowbody aircraft with seat back video screens, and that system looks like JetBlue’s rather than American’s.

According to a social media account the passenger’s removal was prompted by their “comments regarding Gaza.”

Another Jewish passenger just had officers called on him after speaking up about a flight attendant’s Palestine flag pin that violated company standards.

And JetBlue tightened their flight attendant dress code after calling cops on an elite passenger who spoke up about a flight attendant’s Palestine flag pin. They also faced controversy over their seatback entertainment’s moving map removing the state of Israel.

While this video doesn’t show what actually happened before the Jewish passenger was removed, and so it’s not possible to pass judgment on the incident (especially since the person passing it along appears to misidentify the airline!), something all airlines need to consider is asymmetric speech: that airline employees exercise power over passengers – power over whether they’ll board and fly, or whether they’ll be considered “disruptive” for expressing their own contrary opinions. And bringing politics into the cabin is already enough of a problem with passengers, letting crew do it to passengers is even worse.

That’s why I’m a fan of the new American Airlines policy that restricts the ability of individual crew to remove passengers on their own judgment when neither safety nor security is at issue.

And it shows what happens when passengers from all backgrounds, and employees with their own views, are thrown together in small-d democratic fashion inside a metal tube. All of differences outside of air travel become magnified.

Scroll to Top