Frontier Airlines Accused of Anti-Semitism After Removing Jewish Family

Frontier Airlines has been accused of anti-Semitism after removing a Jewish family from a Miami to Newark flight on Sunday night over allegations that their 18-month-old infant wasn’t wearing a face mask. The airline denied the incident erupted because of the infant and said the family was removed because “members of a large group, including adults, refused to wear masks.”

Meanwhile, video footage has since emerged of the family being removed from Frontier Airlines flight F9-2878. During the time that the video was taken, all of the family members are seen wearing approved face coverings except for the infant.

After other passengers got involved in the dispute, Frontier Airlines ended up deplaning the entire plane and the flight was eventually canceled after tensions continued to simmer in the gate area.

Fellow passengers said that the child seemed to be the reason for the family’s removal.

“We were all on the plane when they [flight attendants] came on and saw the 18-month-old baby without a mask,” Hershey Greenbaum told The New York Post.

In video footage of the incident, the father can be seen explaining that the child was under the age of two.

Greenbaum said other passengers came to the defense of the family and became “rowdy” when they were booted.

The parents told the attendants they would try to fit a covering on the baby, according to Greenbaum, but that not did not stop them from taking action.

“All the people on the plane were getting really mad and rowdy because, what are you going to do? It’s an 18-month old baby,” Greenbaum said.

“Most of them were saying, ‘Don’t let them do this to you,’” Greenbaum said of the other passengers. “Most of the people were against it, Jewish or not Jewish, why are you picking on an 18-month-old kid?”

At least one passenger filmed part of the interaction, which was later posted online by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council.

Numerous passengers can be heard calling out the flight staff for what they believed to be an unjustified action.

“What are you accomplishing?” one person says.

“You’re gonna pay the consequences,” another passenger can be heard saying.

“This is Nazi Germany,” a third person shouts.

Greenbaum said about 15 police officers responded to the incident.

The flight was eventually canceled and passengers were booked on alternative flights.

In a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, NY State Senator Simcha Felder urged the officials to “demand an immediate federal investigation” into the situation.

Felder wrote that he had been personally contacted by the victims, who told him they had been wearing masks and pleaded to stay on.

“This incident is extremely upsetting and its proximity to recent similar incidents signals an alarming and disturbing trend,” Felder concluded.