Did United Airlines Pilot Attack Flyer For Too Much Time In The Loo?

United Airlines has been accused of a significant violation of passenger privacy. And the alleged antisemitism of an unnamed pilot is part of the ugly story, which United refused to discuss with us.

A young Orthodox Jewish man, Yisroel Liebb, 20, was traveling on a United flight from Tulum, Mexico to Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport. Suffering from constipation, Liebb spent 30 minutes in the aircraft lavatory—until the pilot allegedly broke down the door.

Liebb says in a recently filed lawsuit that the pilot then pulled him out with his pants around his ankles, exposing his nakedness to passengers and crew. Meanwhile, the pilot launched an antisemitic tirade about “how Jews act.”

Liebb and an acquaintance, Jacob Sebbag, were flying to Houston on United Airlines flight 1601. Both men were wearing traditional Orthodox Jewish garb.

During the flight, Liebb left his seat to use the restroom. After 20 minutes, a flight attendant woke up Sebbag and insisted he check on Liebb, who still hadn’t returned to his seat. Sebbag spoke to Liebb through the bathroom door. Liebb said he was fine but experiencing constipation, according to the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York.

After another 10 minutes, Sebbag was approached by the flight’s pilot, who asked him to check on Liebb again. According to the complaint, the pilot began shouting at Liebb through the lavatory door. He then turned to Sebbag and “began loudly demanding he force Liebb out of the bathroom.”

Liebb spoke through the door, notifying the pilot that he was okay, that he was finishing up, and that he would be out momentarily. The lawsuit claims that the pilot became visibly enraged, broke the lock on the door and forced it open, pulling Liebb out of the bathroom with his pants still around his ankles. This inadvertently exposed his genitalia to Sebbag, several flight attendants, and nearby passengers. Liebb quickly pulled his pants back to his waist after being allowed to get back on his feet.

The pilot then allegedly proceeded to repeatedly push Liebb and Sebbag back to their seats while “making threats of getting the Plaintiffs arrested.” The pilot allegedly made “scathing remarks about their Judaism and how ‘Jews act.’”

When the flight laned at 5:53PM CST, Liebb and Sebbag were in fact arrested by “five to seven agents” from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Customs and Border Protection, (CBP) who pulled Liebb from his seat, bent his arms behind his back and cuffed him. Sebbag and Liebb were marched off the plane and confined in separate cells, handcuffed to tables. The lawsuit claims that their “persons and luggage were subjected to intrusive, unconsented, unwarranted and unreasonable searches.”

Paragraph 28 of the lawsuit is particularly chilling. “An employee of Defendant United Airlines [allegedly the pilot of the aircraft] knowingly and intentionally caused physical contact with, and harm to, the persons of the Plaintiffs by pulling Liebb out of the bathroom by force and shoving the Plaintiffs through the aisle while shouting about his hatred for them because of their religious beliefs.”

Among the charges raised in the civil lawsuit are “unlawful detention and search” resulting in “bodily injuries and emotional distress.” Liebb and Sebbag said they suffered severe wrist pain from the handcuffs for several days following, while Liebb said his head and legs were also injured.

The men also missed their connecting flight to New York and had to stay over in Houston. United Airlines gave them complimentary flights for the following day, although they had to pay for their hotel rooms and food.

Obviously, the allegations raised by the attack by the unnamed United Captain, the invasion of passenger privacy and of antisemitic taunting are extremely serious.

We contacted United Airlines for more information about what happened. We were told only, “We don’t have anything to share on this.”

This has not been a good week for United, which was also accused of trying to shut off the ventilator of a sick one-year-old child. The child’s mother, New Jersey resident Melissa Sotomayor, was reportedly told that her disabled son who relies on a tracheostomy, ventilator, and portable oxygen concentrator, “would be fine” once the flight reached a high altitude.

And unfortunately, the alleged antisemitic incident on United Flight 1601 is not the first time a major airline has been accused of such behavior. A 2022 incident involving the German airline Lufthansa resulted in the largest fine the U.S. Department of Transporation (DOT) has ever levied for a civil rights violation.

In the 2022 incident, Lufthansa refused boarding to 128 Orthodox Jews who were wearing traditional garb. The Lufthansa passengers had flown to Frankfurt from New York. They had tickets on Lufthansa to travel to Budapest . The men, many traveling separately, were on a religious pilgrimage to a Hungarian town formerly known as Kerestir.

But instead of dealing with a couple of individuals who refused to comply with the mask mandate, Lufthansa denied boarding to more than one hundred passengers because they were ‘visibly Jewish.’

Although many did not know each other and were not traveling together, the men told investigators that Lufthansa treated them as if they were a group. They denied boarding to all over alleged misbehavior by a few passengers.

Eventually a phone video emerged, with a Lufthansa supervisor saying to a Jewish passenger that those who were banned are “Jewish from JFK.” The supervisor was recorded saying “It’s Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems, everyone has to pay for a couple.”

In October of 2024, the U.S. Department of Transportation fined Lufthansa $4 million for its treatment of the passengers, the largest fine the agency has issued against an airline for civil-rights violations. The department said most of the 128 passengers who were denied boarding “wore distinctive garb typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men,” as did Liebb and Sebbag in the United case.

In the aftermath of the incident on Flight 1601, Liebb and Sebbag reportedly believe that the United Airlines pilot deliberately shared misinformation with the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and the Transportation Safety Administration. The men believe that the pilot’s ‘tip’ led to them to be unlawfully detained and searched.

Lufthansa reached a settlement with most of the affected passengers in 2022. Whether that will ultimately happen in the Flight 1601 case, where Liebb and Sebbag are seeking damages for emotional distress, and the costs of their legal fees, is unclear.

But financial damages alone do not erase the lingering pain of discrimination and embarrassment at the loss of privacy. United needs to do a full and transparent investigation into what occurred, particularly if the actions of the pilot were as inappropriate as described.

Global antisemitism has surged 340% in the last two years. It is dismaying that it appears to have spread to the “friendly skies” as well.