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Report on Yeshiva of Flatbush Incident Yields Mixed Results

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Yeshiva of Flatbush’s Rabbi Seth Linfield felt that the airline overreacted to the misconduct of a number of students, though he did apologize for the youngsters actions.
Yeshiva of Flatbush’s Rabbi Seth Linfield felt that the airline overreacted to the misconduct of a number of students, though he did apologize for the youngsters actions.
Yeshiva of Flatbush’s internal investigation of the recent incident wherein its students were removed from an airplane during a school trip has yielded mixed conclusions. According to the report, the airline, AirTran Airways, “abused its discretion” when its flight crew ordered the entire group of youngsters to leave the plane because they had allegedly acted in violation of the airline’s safety regulations. At the same time, though, the school determined that the decision was “categorically” not motivated by anti-Semitic sentiments. The report was spearheaded by the school’s executive director, Rabbi Seth Linfield.

The controversial incident took place on June 3, when 101 Yeshiva of Flatbush students traveling on a senior class trip were in the process of settling in after boarding an AirTran flight from New York to Atlanta, accompanied by seven school staff members as chaperones. After crew members and the captain apparently asked the students twice to turn off all of their electronic devices prior to takeoff, a minimum of three youngsters switched their cell phones to “airplane mode” and continued listening to music.

Moreover, according to spokesmen from Southwest Airlines, Air Tran’s parent company, several students did not remain seated – an action that is in violation of federal air regulations. With the situation seeming to remain irresolvable, the pilot ordered the entire group of yeshiva students to disembark the aircraft.

The incident gained prominent exposure in national media when one of the students reached out to several major news outlets. As stated in Rabbi Linfield’s investigative report, which was based on eyewitness testimony by the students, chaperones, observing passengers and AirTran management, the interpretation disseminated to CNN and social media that the group’s removal was motivated by anti-Semitism “seemed to be the primary driver of the story’s ‘pickup.’”

In Rabbi Linfield’s summary conclusion about the matter, the students were admittedly at fault for not complying with the order to turn off their cell phones. “At no time did the students disrespect the flight crew in words or tone – beyond not immediately complying with the directives… to turn off all electronic devices,” the report stated. It further contended that the airline crew did not accept the repeated offers by the school chaperones to assist with controlling the youngsters.

The decision to order the students to leave the plane was made by the pilot, who remained in the cockpit and relied purely on information supplied by the flight attendants.

In the report, the school formally apologized to AirTran “to the extent that any of our students behaved in a way that was perceived by the flight crew to be disrespectful or disobedient.” The veteran Modern Orthodox educational institution offered praise to the airline for rebooking the yeshiva students on alternative flights “with extraordinary diligence,” along with offering each of them two round-trip flights to any Southwest destination of their choice.

It “is the position of the Yeshiva of Flatbush and its trustees, officers and faculty” that the crew’s actions toward the students were not influenced by anti-Semitism, according to the report. Separately, the report concluded that the school could learn several lessons from the event, including the need to provide a higher ratio of chaperones to students on future school trips, and “a comprehensive communications and social media policy.”

In the aftermath of the ejections, the students traveled to their intended destination on several different flights, with some of them ending up having to fly as much as 12 hours to rendezvous with the entire group.

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