Israel Matzav: Good grief! Tefillin cause New York - Louisville flight to be diverted

Good grief! Tefillin cause New York - Louisville flight to be diverted

A 17-year old boy took out his Tefillin (phylactories - see picture) to pray on a morning flight from New York to Louisville on Thursday and someone decided they were a bomb. As a result, the plane was diverted to Philadelphia.

City police Lt. Frank Vanore said a 17-year-old boy on the plane was using tefillin.

Tefillin is a set of small black boxes attached to leather straps and containing biblical passages. One box is strapped to the arm; the other box is placed on the head.

Vanore said the crew on US Airways Flight 3079 questioned the teen, who explained the ritual. Still, the pilot decided to land in Philadelphia.

The flight had left La Guardia airport in New York on Thursday morning bound for Louisville, Kentucky. It landed without incident in Philadelphia around 9 a.m.

Vanore said the teen has been very cooperative with law enforcement.

I'll bet he was - the poor kid was probably scared out of his mind.

Why did the boy pray on the plane? Probably because it wasn't light out until he was on the plane or in the airport terminal, and there are limits on how early you can pray the morning service. I pray on planes all the time, and I put on my Tefillin on planes all the time, as do hundreds of Orthodox Jews. I am astounded that on a flight out of New York - LaGuardia there are people who have no clue what Tefillin are.

In an incident similar to this one shortly after 9/11, a plane bound for New York from Atlanta was diverted to Charlotte, North Carolina because two Orthodox Jews with their tzitzith hanging out of their shirts started praying on the plane. At least neither this incident nor Thursday's incident took place on a Friday.

When are people in the US going to wake up to the fact that there are no Orthodox Jewish terrorists? In fact, there are no Jewish terrorists and no Christian terrorists and no atheist terrorists. Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all the terrorists are Muslims. It's time to act accordingly.

UPDATE FRIDAY 12:10 AM

Forgot to add here that one of the most satisfying moments of my life was putting on my Tefillin to pray in the business class section of a 5:30 am Tel Aviv - Frankfurt Lufthansa flight about ten years ago.

UPDATE FRIDAY 1:06 AM

Here's a Philadelphia television news report on the incident - I feel sorry for the kid (and his 16-year old sister who was apparently with him).

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: NY Nana).



If they'd been Muslims, all US Air flight attendants would have been forced to go to 'sensitivity training,' but since they're only Orthodox Jews, that won't happen. If I sound contemptuous, it's because I am. US Air started flying non-stop to Israel last summer from Philadelphia - remind me to avoid them.

Here's another report from WABC New York. Let's go to the videotape.



I think the whole story is ridiculous. The kid couldn't clearly explain it because he can't interrupt his prayers at certain points. And he probably prayed on the plane because - as I noted earlier - the sun rises late in New York at this time of year (around 7:30 if I recall correctly). It was a 7:30 flight so it probably was too early to pray in the terminal before he got on the plane (and by the way - Louisville is not such a short flight from New York - I've been there - so I'm TOTALLY unimpressed by the 'expert' from Boro Park. Where did they find him?).

Personally, my prayers are timed so that I hit the main part of the prayer at sunrise wherever I am (and yes, I pray sitting down in flight - not standing up). And I'm not going to change that because some moron decides that after my Tefillin have gone through security (and frequently set off the TSA people in the US who run them through again and again) there's a bomb inside them. That's absurd.

Israel Matzav: Good grief! Tefillin cause New York - Louisville flight to be diverted