Another Shabbos Fiasco With El Al As Plane Lands One Minute Before Candle Lighting
(Sunday, December 25th, 2016 08:00 PM)
Once again frum travelers landing in Tel Aviv on Shabbos found themselves in a difficult place as El Al flight 320 from Paris to Tel Aviv landed on erev Shabbos at 4:18PM. Candle lighting in Bnei Brak was 4:19PM.
Some of the passengers on board spoke with Kol Berama Radio host Noam Zeigman on Sunday, 25 Kislev, explaining what took place. The report the flight left Paris two hours late due to inclement weather. Some of the frum passengers spoke with airline officials during the waiting period, concerned as they saw Shabbos nearing while they had yet to take off. They explain airline representatives told them that if the flight cannot land by 3:15PM, it will not leave Paris.
Hearing these words, they were comfortable with the situation and when the flight took off, they were confident they would have an hour from landing to get to their destination. However, this was not the case as reported above. Making things worse, the ‘Shabbos protocol’ was not implemented, permitting the religious Jews to move ahead of the lines to reach their destinations.
Kol Berama spoke with El Al and its version of events is somewhat different. The airline insists no one promised to land by 3:15PM, but passengers were promised to land before Shabbos and this is what occurred. The airline apologized for not implementing the ‘Shabbos protocol’ which they admit should have been implemented.
Musicians Ohad Moskowitz and Gershon Freishtat were among the passengers and they were among the lucky ones, having a place to go in Kfar Chabad. They reportedly took a cab for about five minutes and then walks for over 40 minutes until reaching Kfar Chabad, where they spent Shabbos.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Once again frum travelers landing in Tel Aviv on Shabbos found themselves in a difficult place as El Al flight 320 from Paris to Tel Aviv landed on erev Shabbos at 4:18PM. Candle lighting in Bnei Brak was 4:19PM.Hearing these words, they were comfortable with the situation and when the flight took off, they were confident they would have an hour from landing to get to their destination. However, this was not the case as reported above. Making things worse, the ‘Shabbos protocol’ was not implemented, permitting the religious Jews to move ahead of the lines to reach their destinations.
Kol Berama spoke with El Al and its version of events is somewhat different. The airline insists no one promised to land by 3:15PM, but passengers were promised to land before Shabbos and this is what occurred. The airline apologized for not implementing the ‘Shabbos protocol’ which they admit should have been implemented.
Musicians Ohad Moskowitz and Gershon Freishtat were among the passengers and they were among the lucky ones, having a place to go in Kfar Chabad. They reportedly took a cab for about five minutes and then walks for over 40 minutes until reaching Kfar Chabad, where they spent Shabbos.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
1. Flying on Erev Shabbos, especially such a short one, in addition to the flight being international, always has an inherent possibility of being delayed and arriving extremely close to Shabbos.
2. Shabbos protocol is very nice, but are the rest of the passengers goyim, whom the frum ones would certainly delay, thus making their chilul Shabbos definite?
If you are so observant, unless it’s a true sha’as hadchak, or a bona fide emergency, please remember the words of the poskim about NOT traveling on erev Shabbos even between two nearby towns, let alone flying from a different country.
GABY LOCK SAYS
THERE IS NOTHING MORE TO ADD TO THESE TWO COMMENTS