A Jewish passenger on board United Airlines flight 1601 from Tulum to Houston is suing United Airlines after being yanked out of the lavatory, pantless, and turned over to Homeland Security on arrival.
The story from the January 28, 2025 flight comes out in a lawsuit flagged by Live and Let’s Fly.
About 30 minutes after departure, 20-year old Yisroel Liebb excused himself to the rear lavatory, dealing with a bout of constipation. After several minutes, a concerned flight attendant woke the man’s travel companion to see if everything was alright. The companion assured her he was fine and would be done soon.
Ten minutes later, as the men was still ensconced in the lav, a pilot demanded that he get out immediately. He shouted orders at the closed door as the passenger promised “almost done.” Matters escalated, and the passenger’s lawsuit claims that the pilot broke the door’s lock, forced the door open, and yanked the man out with his pants still around his ankles.
The passenger claims that the enraged pilot then push him and his travel companion back to their seats, while hurling threats of arrest and spouting off anti-Semitic slurs about “how Jews act.”
On arrival, Customs and Border Protection agents boarded the aircraft. They demanded all passengers remain seated, and forcibly removed the two passengers from their seats. And they were told “This isn’t county or state, we are Homeland, you have no rights here.”
The story seems so insane that it feels like something must be missing, but the most egregious true stories feel that way, too. This passenger is submitting the details to a court of law and suing over it, so without strong cause otherwise there’s a presumption that it reflects a true accounting of facts.
And a half hour visit to the lavatory does draw suspicion and reaction from crew. Sometimes it’s drug use. Sometimes there’s a health issue. And sometimes the passenger brings in an iPad and, well, whatever.
That’s just awful. Not right, at all. Wishing the best to them on their case. Hope they recover.
If today was April 1st, I’d be certain this was an April Fool’s prank.
Beyond embarrassing. This is what our country has sunk to
This is shocking. Our society is getting worse. Dumbed down and uncivilized. What that guy went through is cruel and unusual. I hope he gets compensated. Ppl are becoming more and more narcissistic selfish and evil. No wonder ppl are getting pets and staying away from ppl that turned tyranical
hope the pilot finds another job, cleaning toilets.
plaintiff in PI cases and defendants in criminal cases commonly like to allege that racial religious slurs/statements were made to them Printing allegations not proven is the lifeline of this blog. Followed by comments that assume the allegations are true even if appear questionable
While I like some of the garbage news. I think these stories are too much .
I’m sorry, but I’m having a really hard time believing this incident occurred as stated. This is 2025. There is pretty much a 0% chance that videos of the incident wouldn’t be all over the internet if it actually happened.
How do we in the year 2025 still not have CCTV in planes ?
Ve are zee Homeland security forces! ZEIG HEIL M’FR! Lick mine kneeboots schwein!
@Sven — Interesting observation. I’m with you, in-part, because false accusations are certainly an issue, as we often rush to judgment, at least in the court of public opinion; however, this ‘case’ appears to be going through the legal system, so ideally such biases and evidence will have to withstand muster, otherwise, the case fails. So, if this is what actually happened, it does seem egregious. It’d be a real shame because we need more, not less, pilots—regardless, they shouldn’t be bigots. They are in a position of authority, over their aircraft and its passengers at least, so held to a higher standard.
I think if I was on a flight and a pilot is dragging someone down the aisle screaming “this is how Jews act”, I’d want to get off. Other than that, hopefully everyone had a good flight.
Long time poster here. About 10 years ago, I started to have swallowing issues… a piece of food (almost always bread or more likely meat), would get stuck on the way down. It’s a weird feeling… you can’t get the food down, you start burping and trying to swallow, and meanwhile you feel your breath is cut short. And you are VERY embarrassed, and you find a bathroom stall and deal with it.
And especially on an airplane. It can take 15-20 minutes to try and get it down, drinking some water, but the first few attempts make you spit up just he water into a sink. Once you finally swallow the food, it’s the best feeling and all is well in the world, like nothing happened at all.
Good news is that this got recognized by a doctor, and a course of Prilozic over 2 weeks solved everything permanently for me.
But I will always remember being embarrassed, so take everything with a grain of salt before jumping to conclusions. 🙂
It’s United. They drag people from planes who paid for their seats
You’ve got to fight
For your right
To pot-ty!
(I will show myself out)
“Ten minutes later, as the men was still ensconced in the lav”
Proofreading ftw, Gary.
If this incident does hold to be true, it’s not shocking that it’s coming from United… This seems to be the ongoing issues with United as of late.
@Jon Biedermann — I got chills reading your comment. Not to presume anything, but keep an eye out for esophageal cancer. Issues with swallowing are no joke, and early detection is often key. Sometimes an endoscopy is necessary. Speak with medical professionals. Hope you’re doing better and never have to deal with that horror.
If ANYONE is actually foolish enough to believe this story is accurate because of how the filing is worded, they have no idea how civil lawsuits work lol. No video of the incident? Complete BS. And I’m Jewish.
Many red flags in this story
Pilot would not be in the cabin dealing with thiis event during flight
No need to break any locks, lavs can be unlocked from outside
30 mins in lav would raise concern without any consideration of ethnicity
All the people asking about video–it sounds like it went down awfully quickly. Why would anyone be filming until the pilot opens the door?
Since it’s going to court it there pretty much has to be something, probably witness testimony.
I hope the plaintiffs have good witnesses for their case. Although videos are often shot with phone cameras, it is not always the case. If they were cooperative with the CBP, there would be nothing of interest to take videos of. The pilot interaction may have had a limited number of witnesses. The flight attendants may follow typical company actions of lying with ease so they may not be good witnesses.
As a captain for a major US airline I would give this about 99% chance of being a BS law suit and article. The biggest glaring issue is post 9/11 flight deck crews do not get involved in cabin issues. If cabin crew can not handle it then we get the police. So to say a pilot did this is probably 99% BS.
Lots of things don’t add up. Guaranteed that, unless it was a relief pilot, that a member of the flight crew would intervene. Unless the sliding locking mechanism was jammed, the door can be unlocked from the outside. If the passenger “had the squirts”, maybe he should have considered not flying, taking an anti-diarrhea pill, etc. This whole episode is, probably, click bait.
What’s scary is the fact that the pilot went off raging as he did certainly brings his mental state considering he is operating a passenger jet. I have flow with some hotheads before and it’s not pleasant. I would venture to guess he has an underlying issue which I hope United and the FAA look into.
As for the passenger I too have boarded a long flight home only to discover I have diarrhea what I did was inform the FA before dashing into the lav so she knew.
Doesn’t sound realistic.Alwsys the jews giving the note, what’s new?
If this is how it went down I’m shocked it hasn’t been all over the news before now. There are two sides to every story. Can’t wait to see how this one shakes out.
This never happened . Complete BS story . Theres just no way ..
20 mins in a lavatory is a security concern. The passenger was asked to leave and then they refused orders from crew to leave – major security concern. Sounds like a lawsuit to try get money when they were in fact behaving incorrectly. If the pilot was actually dragging them down the aisle saying that there surely would have been video posted on social media about it, so likely not true and just trying to play the anti-semitism card which is terrible for the people who actually do suffer from anti-semitism and aren’t believed.
“this is how Jews act”lol. Self projection for sure.
Difficult to believe a passenger on a flight from Mexico has constipation
Usually it’s a diarrhea bomb explosion
@ WestCoast Flyer. My thought is that the passenger had diarrhea in which case 20 minutes or multiple trips to the lav is not unreasonable. I feel sorry for the passenger and the other pax waiting to use it, especially the very next one.
Entirely understandable behavior from the flight attendant. They love to cite the Holocaust and antisemitism and “never again” to victimize themselves, meanwhile they commit a comparable genocide and are perhaps more racist. I’m glad antisemitism has lost all meaning after so much overuse.
Not only an anti-Semitic attack but a outright aberration of civil rights. The captain of the United flight should be held accountable. What does that mean. He should be not only fired but ordered to stand trial. United should address this issue.