A passenger who left his seat to pray in the
back of a plane before it took off, ignoring flight attendants'
orders to return, was removed by an airport security guard, a
witness and the airline said.
The Orthodox Jewish man, who wore a full beard, a black hat and
a long black coat, stood near the lavatories and began saying his
prayers while the United Airlines jet was being boarded at John F.
Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday night, said Ori Brafman,
a fellow passenger who spoke about the incident by phone from San
Francisco, where he lives.
When flight attendants urged the man, who was carrying a
religious book, to take his seat, he ignored them, Brafman said.
Two friends, who were seated, tried to tell the attendants that the
man couldn't stop until after he'd finished his prayers in about 2
minutes, he said.
When the man finally stopped praying, he explained that he
couldn't interrupt his religious ritual and wasn't trying to be
rude. But the attendants summoned a guard to remove him, said
Brafman, a writer who had been visiting New York to talk to
publishers.
The plane, Flight 9 to San Francisco, took off without the man.
It landed at its destination as scheduled, Brafman said.
Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, a subsidiary
of UAL Corp. with headquarters in Chicago, confirmed the man was
taken off the plane and put on another flight Thursday morning.
Urbanski said flights cannot depart if all passengers are not in
their seats, which risks a delay, and it is important that
passengers listen to the instructions of the flight crew.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs area
airports, and the Transportation Security Administration, which
handles airport security, said Thursday they weren't involved in
the incident.