New York – Two EL AL planes that took off late Friday from JFK airport in New York will land in Rome and Athens instead of Ben Gurion Airport, in order to prevent religious and haredi travelers from arriving late to Israel and thus desecrating Shabbat.
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Flight LY008 will land at 15:00 in Rome. Flight LY002 will land at 14:45 in Athens.
Two EL AL planes that took off late Friday from JFK airport in New York will land in Rome and Athens instead of Ben Gurion Airport, in order to prevent religious and haredi travelers from arriving late to Israel and thus desecrating Shabbat.
Flight LY008 will land at 15:00 in Rome. Flight LY002 will land at 14:45 in Athens.
The planes took off late from New York due to stormy weather. El Al will take care of alternative flights to Israel for all passengers, except those who prefer to stay in Athens or Rome on Shabbat so as not to violate Shabbat, and will be treated by company representatives. EL AL will place planes that will return them to Israel at the end of the Sabbath.
El Al said in a statement that “extreme weather in New York is causing cancellations and delays in hundreds of flights, including El Al flights that left Israel last night. Due to the delays and delays, El Al does not fly on Saturday, the company is forced to land Flight 002 in Athens and Flight 008 in Rome.”
“EL AL will take care of alternative flights to Israel for all passengers. In addition, passengers who prefer to stay in Athens or Rome on Shabbat will be treated by representatives of the company and do not worry about returning them to Israel at the end of Shabbat. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers.”
El Al has had a thorny relationship with the issue of Shabbat observance in the past. In 1982, then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin forbade El Al from flying on Shabbat due to its status as the official airline of Israel. The decision was controversial, yet Begin refused to budge, saying in the Knesset that “Shabbat is one of the loftiest values in all of humanity”.
In 2006, haredi Jews boycotted El Al after it allowed several flights to take off on Shabbat to clear a backlog in Miami. After the airline refused to promise that it wouldn’t happen again, haredi leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv called on Jews to cancel their flights with El Al even if the move meant suffering an economic loss. Hundreds canceled their flights and a month-long boycott commenced, costing El Al an estimated NIS 1 million a day.
El Al eventually apologized and obligated itself not to fly on Shabbat or Jewish holidays, and haredi leaders removed the boycott.
Causes the chiloni passengers and crew to be mechalel shabbos. Obviously no frum yid is on that flight, to take a 10 hour flight scheduled to arrive 2 hours before shabbos.
Must have cost El Al hundreds of thousands of dollars, to accommodate passengers who never should have boarded the erev Shabbos plane in the first place.
I hope they will say “thank you.”
Public relations is one thing and facts is another thing, Now with the facts LY008 didn’t land in Rome it continued to Tel Aviv and landed at the shkia, LY002 did land in Athens dropped of the shomrei shabbos passengers and took off to Tel Aviv 25 minutes ago and scheduled to arrive at 6:48 pm
This is something I have never considered.
It is my understanding that El Al had to arrange for all passengers to disembark and either stay in Europe or board other airlines to Tel Aviv.
I believe El Al is not supposed to land in Israel on Shabbos, whether it’s a plane full of chilonim, or non-Jews, or even an empty plane.
Not so fast. The plane took off 5 hours late. They sat on the tarmac for 3.5 hours, the frum passengers, realizing that they were not going to make it begged the pilot to be allowed to disembark before take off in NY.
The pilot agreed, said that he was going to taxi back to the terminal, and instead he took off.
The pilot should be fired and El Al should receive a massive fine for their disgraceful actions.
“Kol hakavod” to El Al is order for this.
These aren’t planes that “took off late Friday”. These are planes that took off late THURSDAY. They’re not “Erev Shabbos” planes. They’re planes that were scheduled to take off on Thursday, but the snow caused their severe delays.
Which is why a Jew is not supposed to travel (far) on erev Shabbos.
To: #8 - Don 217;t blame the victims in this case. When El Al is hit in the pocketbook, and boycotted, as was the case in 2006, El Al will change its attitude. If the Chareidim wanted off, the pilot should have obliged them. Otherwise there could have been a riot on the plane.
El Al has its own security concerns, plus other reasons which we may never know about, which is the reason they may have decided to take off to Athens. In any case from what I’ve been reading, the end of the story brought all 120 types of Jews together and united under one roof. 120 signifies ad meah veesrim. All those Jews who gave up their Shabbos at home with their families should merit life till 120, and El Al should always merit to continue to bring all types of Jews together for happy occasions especially to celebrate the holiest day of the week together which they do week in and week out, 52 weeks of the year!