Insulted: Jennie and Yehedua Yosef Adler were travelling with their 19-month-old daughter. WPLG, Screenshot
Insulted: Jennie and Yehedua Yosef Adler were travelling with their 19-month-old daughter. WPLG, Screenshot
An Orthodox Jewish family returning to Detroit were humiliated by American Airlines staff when they were removed from the flight over complaints of 'body odour'.
However, Jennie and Yehuda Yosef Adler are now suing the airline claiming that they were the victims of discrimination.
The Adlers told Fox News that they were submitted to "nasty and humiliating" treatment after boarding the plane from Miami Airport on January 23 last year.
Travelling with their 19-month-old daughter, the couple claim they were insulted and removed from the plane by American Airlines staff.
In the lawsuit Yehuda Yosef claimed he had asked for "headphones" from a cabin crew member but received scorn.
The plane's pilot who overheard Adler's request allegedly told him they "don't offer anything complimentary."
On the way to their seats, the family were approached by another cabin crew member who told them that there "was an emergency" and they had to leave the aircraft.
Having deplaned the family discovered that this was a ruse, and the real reason they had been asked to leave was because the pilot had complained of their body odour.
"All of a sudden they closed the gate and they said 'oh sorry sir, some people were complaining you had body odour'," Mr Adler told WPLG at the time.
The family could do little else but take the insults watch their plane depart without them from Miami airport.
The Adlers allege in their lawsuit that the flight attendant had made "disparaging and derogatory statements telling the Adlers that he knew that Orthodox Jews take baths once a week".
Distraught, and insisting that they had cleaned that morning, they began approaching people in the airport to ask if they thought they detected a smell. They gathered the testimony of 20 other travellers to be used as evidence in the lawsuit, all of whom did not think the Adlers suffered from offensive body odour.
American Airlines: Denying discrimination, the airline doubled down on the body odour claim. Photo / Joshua Hanson, Unsplash
The family are now suing the airline over grounds of religious discrimination, and will seek damages. The lawsuit claims they should be awarded damages for civil rights violations, infliction of emotional distress, defamation and negligence – after being separated from their luggage and perambulator on the plane.
American Airlines denies the charges, but has said that passengers and crew complained about the family's smell:
"The Adler family was asked to deplane after multiple passengers and our crew members complained about Mr Adler's body odour. The decision was made out of concern for the comfort of our other passengers. Our team members took care of the family and provided hotel accommodations and meals and rebooked them on a flight to Detroit the next morning. None of the decisions made by our team in handling this sensitive situation were based on the Adlers' religion," the airline said in a statement to Fox News.
