International Courant
The German airline blocked 128 Jewish vacationers resulting from alleged misconduct by some passengers, US authorities say.
Lufthansa has agreed to a $4 million high quality over an incident through which greater than 100 Jewish vacationers have been denied boarding.
The German airline banned the vacationers – a lot of whom wore distinctive clothes sometimes worn by Orthodox Jewish males – from boarding a connecting flight in Frankfurt in Might 2022 based mostly on the alleged misconduct of some passengers, the US Division of Transportation mentioned Tuesday.
Passengers interviewed by authorities mentioned the airline handled the 128 Jewish vacationers touring from New York Metropolis to Budapest as a “single group,” despite the fact that a lot of them didn’t know one another and didn’t journey collectively, the DOT mentioned .
The division mentioned the high quality was the most important it had ever levied in opposition to an airline for violating civil rights legislation.
“Nobody ought to face discrimination once they journey, and immediately’s motion sends a transparent message to the aviation trade that we’re ready to research and take motion when passengers’ civil rights are violated,” mentioned Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in an announcement.
Lufthansa didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In its response to the DOT, Lufthansa mentioned it regretted and publicly apologized for the incident, which resulted from an “unlucky sequence of inaccurate communications, misinterpretations and misjudgments,” in accordance with a division court docket order.
Nonetheless, the airline mentioned its employees dealt with the scenario “with out regard to the ethnicity or faith of the passengers” and that its actions, “whereas regrettable, don’t help any discovering of discrimination and the Division’s findings on this case” .
Lufthansa mentioned the misconduct involving a variety of passengers included obstructing flight attendants and arguing with crew over the carrying of masks.
The DOT mentioned in its order that the airline “concluded that it was not sensible to deal with every passenger individually.”
Lufthansa pays file $4 million high quality for banning Jewish passengers from flight | Aviation
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