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Pilot Diverts Plane Over Teen's In-Flight Prayer
Filed under: In The News, Weird But True
The teen was using tefillin, a set of small black boxes attached to leather straps and containing biblical passages. Credit: chaim zvi, Flickr
The Associated Press reports that a Jewish 17-year-old was using tefillin, a set of small boxes containing biblical passages that are attached to leather straps. When used for prayer, one box is strapped to the arm and one is placed on the head. The sight alarmed passengers and crew members and caused the pilot to make an unexpected landing in Philadelphia.
"It's something that the average person is not going to see very often, if ever," FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver tells the news service.
A diverted plane is escorted by to a terminal at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia on Jan. 21. Credit: Matt Rourke, AP
The early-morning flight -- it departed New York's LaGuardia Airport at 7:30 a.m. -- left no time for the boy's morning prayers, explained the teen's grandmother, who was waiting for him at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky.
"He hadn't had the opportunity to pray, so that is why he did it on the plane," Frances Winchell tells the Associated Press.
The teen, who was traveling with his 16-year-old sister, was questioned by authorities and then released. The rabbi for the family's synagogue tells AP that the boy is a "brilliant young student" from "the sweetest family."
Rabbi Shmuel Greenberg adds that the morning prayer ritual could be alarming for those who are unfamiliar with it. In Judaism, binding the boxes of holy scrolls to the arm and head serves as "a reminder for the person that their actions during the day, and what they think about during the day, should be on a level of holiness and should inspire them to do productive, good things," he tells the news service.
Fears of terrorism have increased since the attempted Dec. 25 attack on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. However, Benjamin Blech, an assistant professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University in New York, says he finds it difficult to believe not one person on the flight recognized the tefillin as a religious ritual.
"We should be aware of ignorance just as much as we should be aware of terrorism," he tells AP, adding that the incident was both "humorous and outlandish."
Related: Airline Grounds Heavy Flight Attendants
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-25-2010 @ 10:43AM
Tatiana said...Are you really serious?!!! A flight attendant couldn't just ask "hey kid, whatcha doin?" If it wasn't really obvious enough that he was praying?? I hope the airline feels really dumb.
Reply
1-25-2010 @ 11:06AM
glenn said...nobody knows what that thing is unless they r jewish. but thats just another thing overlooked by travel safety admin
Reply
1-25-2010 @ 3:26PM
LS said...Sorry, but I knew what it was just by looking at the picture. I'm not Jewish.
1-25-2010 @ 12:37PM
Kiki said...Glenn, I'm not Jewish, but I sure know what those are. I never even grew up in a Jewish neighborhood. That assistant professor is right on the money about 'ignorance'.
Let's watch the TSA now ban those as well.
Reply
1-25-2010 @ 1:22PM
Cait said...Glenn, like Kiki, I am also neither Jewish nor from an area that has many Jewish people. I still know what those are. This incident was unbelievably ridiculous!
Reply
1-25-2010 @ 3:35PM
Mihir said...glenn...like kiki and cait, i'm not Jewish either, nor have a ever lived in a jewish area. and, I don't have a clue what those things are.
so, what have we learned? providing anecdotal evidence of not being Jewish and knowing what tefillin is, does not mean that it is common knowledge.
frankly, the passengers had every reason to be concerned about someone strapping things to themselves in the middle of a flight. i know i would be.
furthermore, Benjamin Blech's statement of "...finds it difficult to believe not one person on the flight recognized the tefillin as a religious ritual" is irrelevant. obviously, not everyone can see one particular passenger. and, it would not be prudent to walk the kid around the plane and ask if anyone knew what the items were.
i believe the airline acted approriately. that being said, this kid has every right to pray during the flight. should he have known better than to strap this on himself? hard to say. to him, these items are commonplace. so, it's possible he had a reasonable expectation that others would know what they were as well.
let's face it. we can't know every ritual of every religion out there. so, someone made a judgement call.
Reply
1-25-2010 @ 7:38PM
Kiki said...Mihir, Glenn had mentioned that you only know what those items are if you actually are Jewish, which is incorrect. By no means was I stating that *everyone* should know what they are, but that some non-Jews are familiar with them.
It's so sad that we now live in such a state of fear.
1-30-2010 @ 7:26AM
Sandyone said..."it would not be prudent to walk the kid around the plane and ask if anyone knew what the items were."
Oh, my! Can you imagine the answers that you'd get? And the lawsuit by the kid's family?
1-26-2010 @ 7:36AM
Don said...I wonder what the reaction would have been if the teenager put a mat on the aisle way and started kneeling and chanting towards the west. Like Muslims are supposed to do this 5 times a day.
If your on a airplane I'm sure your god will understand you not praying one time. Just sit down and shut up on a airplane, or your likely to get mistaken as a threat and get beat down by the other passengers.
Reply
1-31-2010 @ 2:03AM
Steve said...I'm not Jewish either nor Muslim, but I do find it a measure of ignorance that no-one on the aircraft recognised tefillin, pretty much if you recognise the Star of David you should recognise them. Then there is the ignorance of the crew, these aren't big things and not really suitable for an IED capable of detroying an aircraft. A book (say a Bible) would be larger and easier to hold the makings of a device. Do you want the TSA to stop you reading or taking your Bible. Re the mat, not muslim either but give me a break, what is the difference is I pulled out a bible and started to "chant" in latin......you going to complain about that as well? Before you say it isn't Christians blowing up aircraft, remember Oklahoma City..and various birth control centres..the unibomber wasn't muslim either....Christians aren't that innocent either, why wouldn't they try aircraft! By the way I am Christian!!!
Reply