Jewish teen's tefillin sets off bomb scare that diverts US Airways flight from LGA

[N965VJ]

Jewish teen's tefillin sets off bomb scare that diverts US Airways flight from LaGuardia Airport

A Jewish prayer box worn by a teen passenger caused a Thursday morning furor on a flight from LaGuardia Airport, forcing an emergency landing in Philadelphia, authorities said.

The mix-up involved the 17-year-old boy's tefillin, a black box filled with Biblical verses and tied with leather straps to his head, said Philadelphia police Lt. Frank Vanore.

Fears of a potential terrorist attack led the Louisville, Ky.,-bound flight to instead land at Philadelphia International Airport just before 9 a.m., authorities said.

Linkage

 

[Harry Callahan]

What a bunch of chicken littles. What is all of this coming to?

I bet some body pays big time for this one.

 

[FWAAA]

So, the flight crew was not familiar with the prayer rituals of Orthodox Jews, despite flying from LGA?

Wonder if seeing this would scare the flight crew?

 

[SS255]

Oy, vey. This would not have happened on the flight to TLV.

If one is unfamiliar with Orthodox Jewish prayer rituals, one might ask "Why did he wait until he was on the plane to pray?" One thing I would like to add which was not made clear in the article is that religious Jews pray 3 times per day, and they are somewhat "restricted" to praying within certain time windows. Every once in a while I see Orthodox Jews praying with their tefillin in airport waiting areas -- less often on the aircraft -- but since the process of putting on tefillin and then removing it can take a while, not to mention the 20 minutes or so which it takes to pray in which you cannot be disturbed, my assumption is that the time that the plane was at cruising altitude was the best "window" for this boy to fulfill his religious obligations.

I feel very sorry for this boy. How scary it must have been for him to be treated this way.

 

[cltflyer1]

i was unaware their was a erj-145 in new colors?

 

[zethya]

Tefillin's are obviously not a cheap trinket: http://www.milechai.com/judaica/tefillin.html

 

[SS255]

Tefillin's are obviously not a cheap trinket: http://www.milechai.com/judaica/tefillin.html

Not to mention the tefillin bag, yarmulke (head covering), tallit (prayer shawl) and tzitzit (modified form of the prayer shall which is worn under a man's shirt).

Oh......and if that kid had to open up the box and expose the parchment to "prove" that it was a religious object.......and the parchment somehow got damaged.......the tefillin is no longer Kosher and cannot be used. :down: