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An unidentified man was forcibly removed from a United Airlines at JFK before it took off last night because he wouldn’t sit down and stop praying. A San Francisco author named Ori Brafman, who was on the flight, told WNBC the Orthodox Jewish man ignored instructions from flight attendants to remain in his seat. During the minutes before take off, he walked to the back of the plane to pray, and when he continued to defy attendants' orders, they summoned airport security.
Brafman described the scene: "He doesn't respond to them, but his friends explain that once you start praying you can't stop." Kids, this is why you ‘Just Say No’ to prayer. Once the man stopped praying a few minutes later, he explained that he “couldn't interrupt his religious ritual and wasn't trying to be rude.” But he got the boot anyway, and the flight proceeded to San Francisco. A spokesman for United Airlines confirmed that he was removed and put on another flight this morning.
Photo: editrrix
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why did he start praying outside his seat? i've sat next to plenty of Orthodox men on flights and they usually just say their prayers right in their seat. this guy was an idiot.
Othodox Jowes only listen to their God. They don't care what some stickin stewardess says.
Serves him right.
he deserves what he gots. everyone gotta follow the same rules.
You just don't do this post 9/11.
you don't get up out of your seat while the plane is about to take off. I had a yankee fan on a flight who decided he needed to get a drink out of his bag just as the Jet was spooling it's engines. You should of heard the flight attendant scream at him.
"Just Say No To Prayer" - you may not go to heaven for this.
Atheists should understand that if not for the religious observing jewish people, this world would have crumbled long ago.
You may hate orthodox and hassidic guys, but they keep the world going - indirectly and not clearly noticeable.
This is why people should ‘Just Say No’ to prayer.
JDS, that's really uncalled for, unprofessional, rude, and obnoxious.
I'm an atheist--and I wonder who the fuck you think you are to impose your snide little comments and personal beliefs into what should otherwise be a little news story. Are you 12? Is this actually your first job in journalism?
Every day I begin to think it might be...
I'm with bxbrian on this one. The snarky and mean-spirited little asides that JDS often interjects into his posts are not in keeping with the Gothamist voice that Jen Chung established on this site.
#5, well I don't know about keeping the world going, but thanks to the folks @ B&H they've lowered the price margin on cameras! Now if I can only sell off a few unimportant organs I could afford a Nikon D3...
I've been on a plane before when this has happened, although not to the point of ejection. It was really annoying, though, to watch the guy blatantly ignore the flight attendant. Don't care who you are. Sit your ass down.
What are the chances he'd be on a flight the next morning if he were Muslim?
i agree with JacqueMehoff, anybody who doesn't understand this about air travel in america these days should be thrown off the plane.
hell, i'd be the first person to suggest it to the flight attendant.
(really, jds, you should just post your opinions in the comments section like the other gothamist staffers do)
I thought the author's name was Barfman.
I know bashing Gothamist writers is a sport on these pages, but can people take one step back and realize that the author was making a joke? A stupid one, sure, but this is clearly not an attempt by some Godless Heathen Writer to impose his will on you all.
Question the appropriateness of the joke in the article? Sure. Point out that it just wasn't funny? Of course. Treat it seriously? Come on...
>>>(This is why people should ‘Just Say No’ to prayer.)
That's a bit harsh.
www.forgotten-ny.com
When many suffer for one it's wrong. If the guy wanted to pray let him, as long as others don't have to hear his shit or be delayed or in any other way be involved in his mumbo jumbo crap.
He should be banned from all UA flights and take a cab along with that bitch Naomi Campbell next time he wants to go from point A to point B.
I tend to think Airplanes don't just fly thanks to the amazing accomplishments of human engineering, but also by the grace of God.
Now, the Lord doesn't like to be dissed. He tends to smite those who disrespect him. Making an airplane crash is as easy to him as scratching an itch.
So you'd BEST pray before your plane heathens.
Kojak, how much do you pray for hair?
5 times a day. When I wake up, before I go to sleep, and right before every meal.
The Lord will eventually bless me with working hair follicles. He works in mysterious ways.
Greetings from SFist. I've read this story too, and I have to agree that the person should have just done his prayer in his own seat. Anyway, those United Flights from SFO to JFK are the premium service ones, at least you can pray with the extra legroom.
Because if he stops praying, Yahweh will summon Samara from the well and scare him to death.
Just to be on the safe side, he needs a chicken, some Kabalah string, flagelents, and the mummified pinky toe of a sainted martyr.
...mummified pinky toe of a sainted martyr.
Isn't that what Catholics do?
John-
I appreciated your joke. This is why I read a .... blog .... about New York (precisely because it contains news, commentary and occasional irreverent wit).
When I want just the news, I read nytimes.com
yeah let the jew guy pray. Then when a scaryass muslim guy does it people will go apeshit. I know I'd freak the fuck out if a muslim guy started going all ALLAH and shit when in midflight.
#6. You are humorless atheist. This is why atheists get a bad rap.
#14. Not harsh at all. Not harsh enough, actually. Religion is the great disease of humanity.
#16. The grace of God also explains my ability to piss and shit, for what it is worth.
One thing about God ... He's got a sense of humor. His plan is wickedly funny. All those believe in him will go to hell, and all atheists to heaven. I'm not sure what he'll make of me since I don't it's worth the trouble to contemplate about God's existence. Just live, baby.
A lot of humorless folks--I mean, fucks--here.
i know many flight attendants (long story) and they all agree that orthodox and hasidic jews are the rudest, most pushy passengers on any given flight.
you might construe this as anti-semitism, but you'd be wrong.
Yeah, um, what was he thinking?
As for the other unpleasantness, I, too, think the world would be better off without religion, but I found JDS's remark a bit flippant. If Gothamist reporters are going to include humor in their posts, I prefer they use good taste (it's why I enjoy Dave's posts so much).
this ain't the news folks, its a blog.
Re: #21
Yup, 'cause he's gonna need all the help he can get.
Now let's all enter the Standing Crow position while holding dream-catchers in our mouths to ward off all this bad mojo.
Yes, this is a blog. and we're writing in a comments section to a blog.
so quit getting your collective panties in a bunch when a few people post that a comment was more snarky than necessary.
I'm an atheist, but it doesn't mean I can't have some respect for the beliefs of others, and of all the things one might argue are bad about religion, prayer is not really one of them.
At least not prayer in the sense of quietly appealing to a higher power for assistance, as opposed to whatever ritual Ori Brafman was engaged in, walking around a plane and ignoring everyone else.
do you actually think corporate network news is objective?
That worst offense of the writer was that he did not properly punctuate this article, particularly the second paragraph.
Hey, thanks for fixing that.