2024-10-15 21:38:00
The US Department of Transportation fined the German airline for refusing boarding to 128 Jewish passengers.
According to the US Department of Transportation, such a heavy fine has never been imposed on an airline following a civil rights violation. Indeed, Lufthansa, a famous German airline, was fined four million dollars for banning a group of 128 Jews dressed in traditional Orthodox clothing from boarding one of its flights in May 2022. This flight, which was headed to Budapest, Hungary, from New York, was then connecting to Frankfurt, Germany.
This is where some passengers allegedly violated the airline’s mask policy, prompting an inappropriate response from Lufthansa employees. According to the US Department of Transportation, German airline personnel handled all Jews “as if they were a single group and they were refused boarding” when it emerged that many passengers did not know each other and were not traveling together.
A necessary mea culpa
This Tuesday, October 15, Lufthansa stated in a press release that it cooperated fully with the US Department of Transportation after the accident and with the American Jewish Committee (AJC): “Through our ongoing collaboration, we have developed a first-of-its-kind training program in the airline industry for our managers and employees to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination”. For his part, Pete Buttigieg, US Secretary of Transportation, expressed his satisfaction in a press release: “No one should face discrimination while traveling and today’s action sends a clear message to the airline industry that we stand ready to investigate and take action whenever passengers’ civil rights are violated.”.
After the accident, Lufthansa apologized numerous times and publicly expressed its regret several times. It also accepted a fine of two million dollars, while the American Department of Transportation must credit the German company another two million dollars which must be paid to the passengers concerned as compensation for the discrimination suffered.
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