Sixty five Jewish passengers who took United Airlines flight 90 from Newark to Tel Aviv on on April 22, 2023, in time for Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day, sued the carrier.
According to their complaint, about three hours into the flight an elderly man briefly sat in a flight attendant’s jump seat. United diverted the aircraft back to Newark. When passengers complainde, a flight attendant told them to blame the removed passenger and referred to him as “one of [them]” (the Jews).
Passengers were held on the aircraft at Newark for 3 hours, and they say requests for water were refused because supplies were low. (This surprises me – airlines carry emergecy supplies for long delays, and they had been in the air less than half the scheduled trip.)
Off the aircraft, it took United another 3 hours to provide hotel and meal vouchers. During this time, the plaintiffs claim staff made several antisemitic remarks. They sued over nonrefundable lodging losses, missed religious and family events, emotional distress, and some property loss or damage.
- This strikes me as bad service, and United handling the diversion and delay poorly, and not at all surprising from Newark-based crew and ground staff.
- But you don’t get to sue over this. That’s the interesting point here. No matter how abusive, because this was an international flight, unless there’s injury or death your suit probably isn’t going anywhere.
United got the case dismissed with prejudice. It was an international flight, so the Montreal Convention preempts state and federal claims even if the Convention itself does not provide any remedy or alternative.
And the injuries allowable for compensation under the Montreal Convention are limited to “bodily injury.” Claims of dehydration, hunger, thirst, insufficient food and water, and discomfort, were deemed not to be bodily injury uder the Montreal Convention. (United also made claim that this wasn’t an ‘accident’ triggering liability, but that was submitted to the court too late to be considered.)
In terms of losses from delay, the court held that the Montreal Convention does not cover emotional distress or humiliation.
So the court never ruled on the merits of the case – just that even if everything alleged is true, it doesn’t matter, and you cannot sue under federal or state law.
The Montreal Convention is a treaty that governs airline liability rules for international travel. It requires compensation for injuries and deaths. But when there’s neither instead of suing outside of the Montreal Convention you often can’t sue at all.
The treaty is often described as passenger-friendly because it imposes strict liability. There’s no need to show an airline’s intent or negligence in causing harm. However, it excludes many claims and also caps damages – perhaps too low. Where there’s lack of care, capped liabiltiy provides little incentive to change behavior.
- A four year old burned by 200-degree tea on United faces capped liability.
- A JetBlue passenger burned by dry ice given to them by a flight attendant faces capped liabiltiy.
I think this case should have been considered on the merits. And I don’t think the plaintiffs should have won – the way to deal with this is telling the world that, no matter what CEO Scott Kirby says, United is not actually all that premium and by giving you rbusiness to another airline.
While it was a terrible travel day, I’m not sure that’s a tort. But I don’t like a rule that says no matter how badly you’re treated if there’s no physical injury you’re out of luck (and then caps damages even if there is).
I just don’t get why in the world they would divert a flight all the way back to Newark because someone sat on a jump seat!! Has this world gone nuts? I mean seriously, what’s their motivation to cost the airline probably $100,000 in fuel and costs to do that makes absolutely no sense
I would love to hear the airlines side of the story. Something tells me more was going on. I’ve been on that flight 10 times over the last three years. By far the worst group of passengers to ever fly with.
Jewish passengers on a flight to Israel? Who knew?
If the FA’s or pilots had personal antisemitic views then surely they were senior enough to avoid this route. Israel doesn’t need bigots and the flight crew doesn’t need to go to an entire nation of people they feel bigoted towards.
Lmao, United was represented by trash tier law firm Reed Smith (where profit per partner is only $2 million – cf. Kirkland, over $11 million).
Sounds like yet another US airline with power tripping employees going overboard for one bad reason or another.
A passenger sitting in an FA’s jump seat by the lavatory to wait for it to become available? Something like that shouldn’t cause a flight diversion.
Jon — what’s that supposed to mean??
Just some key details here for those wondering:
– the man got into an argument with the flight attendants when they asked him to get off the jumpseat (he was refusing)
– this then got into a yelling match
– this evolved into flight attendants saying if he doesn’t return to his seat they will have to divert as he is being disruptive
– he said “well do it then”
I’m not saying whether he was a security threat or not, but security issues particularly on flights to Israel are taken incredibly seriously.
Entitled racist whites. Gotta love em. 250 years of being the same. Thing is as a minority in USA I never expected anything more from y’all in life.
I am Jewish. Not ultra orthodox variety though. I am 75 and during my life, lived in Israel with my family for 3 years. I made many flights back and forth to Israel on many airlines over the years, Tower, TWA, El Al, British, etc. The Ultra Orthodox passengers can and did cause many disturbances. They refuse to sit next to women, which causes problems. They pray in the isles and loudly a number of times during the flights, which disturbs others. Some simply will not listen to instructions. Once, I was on a Tower flight non stop from NYC to Tel Aviv and the pilot announced that we would have to land in Europe (can’t remember the airport any longer) as we were low on fuel due to headwinds and the plane was an older 747 model. The Ultra Orthodox numerous Jewish passengers started to cause a loud situation on the plane, with many standing up and throwing things at the staff, all the while yelling “we can make it” , “we can make it”. I have never seen anything like that in my life. As a Jew myself, I was embarassed. It was awful. So, there is likely way more to this story from the United side. Glad it was thrown out of court.
What an amazing coincidence! Jon flew with the “identical group of passengers” 10 times over 3 years and kept track of all of their identities.. Jon, if you thought they were bad, you should try fling next with a group of ignorant racists! They might be hard for you to identify.
Trvl4fs
I mean. They’ really are the worst or the worst. And funded and supported by USA. So no surprise there.
More to the story than Gary revealed. Flight diversion was appropriate. The culture involved needs to look at themselves introspectively instead of jumping to litigation for responses to their poor behaviour. I do find most Jews are more vocal at calling out the poor behaviour of other Jews.
@Gary Leff — Excellent coverage, especially on the details of the Montreal Convention. Do you think passengers could sue for specific damages due to the delay under Article 19, like, for costs associated with loss of prepaid accommodations, for instance, within limits, or, can they just say ‘safety, security,’ and get out of that, too? Since we don’t have an EU261 equivalent, which would be in addition to Montreal Convention, there’s probably little assistance here, which is disappointing for affected passengers.
Of course, then there’s the real concern over antisemitism; like, if the crew really did act that way, it’s pretty disturbing. Sure, fine, maybe the elderly man briefly sitting in a crew area while waiting for a lavatory was a minor safety/security concern, but that’s a huge stretch. If the ‘you people’ comment is real, wow. Not cool. Like, don’t take those routes if you really feel that way. Sheesh.
You don’t have to fly to experience antisemitism, there is plenty of it here. 250 years? Where did you get that number from, BA? As for the comment about “ultra Orthodox”, there is no such thing. Even the term Orthodox is problematic. You are bound by our religious laws as much as we are, regardless of what you actually do. Go study your heritage and don’t badmouth your fellowmen in public, which is also forbidden.