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Jewish Prayers Cause Bomb Scare On Airplane
By
Ben Muessig
Published Jan 21, 2010
Modified Jan 21, 2010
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By
Ben Muessig
Published Jan 21, 2010
Modified Jan 21, 2010
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Reports started coming across the wire earlier this morning that a flight out of LaGuardia Airport was being diverted to Philadelphia due to a bomb scare involving a passenger "who has wires strapped to his head and fingers." Turns out, there wasn't really a bomb on board, instead the plane was diverted because "an orthodox Jewish male put on customary 'tefilin' (sic) straps for his morning prayers."
Tefillin are a set of black leather boxes containing religious verses that some observant Jewish men place on their heads and tie to their arms during weekday morning prayers. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, tefillin comes from scripture urging Jews to "take to heart these instructions...bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a frontlet between your eyes." CBS reports that Chautauqua Airlines flight 3079 from LaGuardia to Louisville was diverted to Philadelphia after a flight attendant spotted a 17-year-old male putting on the tefillin after takeoff.
After being notified of a "disruptive passenger," the Transportation Security Administration instructed the pilot to land in Philly, where the teen and his sister were met by Homeland Security and the Philadelphia Police Bomb Squad. "Per standard procedures, TSA and law enforcement personnel met the flight. The disruptive passenger was interviewed, the plane was swept with negative findings," the TSA said in a statement. An airline spokesman referred questions to the TSA, and a TSA spokeswoman told the Times: “We’re always going to be responsive to an airline if they indicate they want to divert due to a suspicious passenger, but in terms of how that decision was arrived at in the moment, the airline needs to speak to that.”
The only question now is whether or not this will change Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind's position on the use of ethnic profiling to prevent acts of terrorism on airplanes.
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judaism
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