Posted on 08/07/2002 6:46:54 AM PDT by Israel Insider
The captain of an El Al flight from Zurich to Israel was forced to cancel the screening of a scheduled film when ultra-Orthodox passengers, both men and women, began to cause an onboard ruckus. The passengers were objecting to immodest scenes in the film, but another passenger on the flight claimed it was a family drama.
The onboard riot reportedly began when a few dozen ultra-Orthodox Haredi passengers refused to pay attention to safety instructions as the plane was taking off, a passenger told Maariv. "While the flight was taking off, as the red seat belt light was still on, they stood in the aisles and began opening the luggage compartments above the seats, disobeying the instructions of the flight attendants."
But the real problems started with the screening of the film. "A large group of Haredim shouted at the stewardesses to stop the film, but they refused," the passenger said. "They continued to shout and began arguing with the secular passengers. Their shouts soon became curses, and then they took out blankets, and removed seat covers, and covered the screen where the film was being shown," he said.
Attorney Ram Oren told Maariv that because of the noise and disturbances, he wasn't able to see the film. "From what I saw, it was a family drama, not a film with vivid sex scenes."
Oren said that the ultra-Orthodox passengers used words like "licentiousness," "disgrace," and "obscene" in their verbal attacks on the flight crew. He said that at one point a group of women stood up in front of the screen, and started pinning blankets, disregarding the desire of the secular passengers to see the film.
The captain of the flight was forced to intervene and asked the rioting passengers repeatedly to sit down and stop their disturbances. Finally he was forced to cancel the film screening, and the passengers calmed down. A videotape filmed by one of the passengers, which was obtained by Maariv, clearly shows the ultra-Orthodox passengers celebrating their victory in stopping the film.
Oren said that the only thing he could do was to try to calm the flight crew, including one stewardess who had broken out in tears. "In normal places you don't see this kind of wild disturbance, and therefore you would not expect to see it on a flight with all the security precautions," he said.
A spokesman for El Al confirmed the reports of the problematic flight and said, "El Al apologizes for the inconveniences and disturbances that affected all of the passengers." The spokesman was unable to provide the name of the film, Maariv reported.
If this had been Arabs, instead of Jews, with todays political climate, I suspect it would have been a flight diversion, F-16 escort, and a handcuff escort off the plane. Not that I'm even remotely defending terrorists, this just smacks of double-standards.
Thats the most important fact of the story. How can that be left out?
At 35,000 feet?
It is expensive to divert an airplane.
If it was just about anybody the flight would have been diverted and the people arrested.
Probably weren't enough parachutes: The plane was in mid-flight when the film disturbance started.
I think it was "Stuart Little 2"...
Must be embarrassing. Bambi? Little Women (I think I saw a bare shoulder in that one)?
Well, that's not too bad then. I've gotten so sick of enduring "chick flicks" while flying I've taken to watching DVDs on my laptop while wearing headphones.
I'm not selfish, though. One flight, I watched "Black Hawk Down" with the subtitles turned on for my seatmates.
Are you sure it wasn't Babe?
The last time I flew to Israel, there were six movies on the flight. There was a small screen in front of each seat instead of one big screen in the cabin. The movies were:
Entrapment
My Favorite Martian
The Out Of Towners
Patch Adams
Lost and Found
Disney's Hercules<----I watched this one with the Hebrew dubbing.
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