Constipated passenger sues United Airlines alleging pilot forcibly removed him from bathroom

A United Airlines pilot is alleged to have forcibly removed a passenger from an aeroplane bathroom on a January 28 flight, according to a recently filed lawsuit. Photo / Getty Images

• A passenger is suing United Airlines after allegedly being forcibly removed from a plane bathroom.
• Yisroel Liebb claims he was left exposed and felt “sexually violated and embarrassed”.
• The lawsuit alleges antisemitic remarks and wrongful actions by the pilot during the January 28 incident.

A passenger who flew with United Airlines from Tulum, Mexico to Houston, Texas claims the pilot forcibly removed him from the aeroplane’s bathroom while he was constipated, leaving him exposed to other travellers with his clothes still down.

The passenger, a 20-year-old New Jersey resident named Yisroel Liebb, is now attempting to sue the airline for leaving him feeling “sexually violated and embarrassed” after his genitals were allegedly exposed to passengers before he was removed from the plane in handcuffs.

Liebb filed a federal lawsuit with the Southern District of New York against United Airlines, US Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, alleging the pilot unfairly attacked him and made belittling remarks about his faith.

In the lawsuit covering the January 28 incident, Liebb claimed he had been in the bathroom down the end of the plane for roughly 20 minutes when a flight attendant woke up his friend, Jacob Sebbag, from a nap.

The flight attendant reportedly asked Sebbag to see if Liebb was okay. Liebb said he relayed his constipation dilemma to his friend, who passed a message that he would be finished soon back to the flight attendant.

When 10 more minutes passed and Liebb still hadn’t surfaced from the bathroom, the pilot in question reportedly asked Sebbag to re-approach Liebb. The lawsuit then states the pilot ordered Liebb to immediately exit the bathroom.

The incident occurred on a United Airlines flight from Tulum, Mexico to Houston, Texas on January 28. Photo / United Airlines

Liebb alleged he told the pilot he was nearly done and preparing to leave, but the pilot forced open the bathroom door and removed Liebb anyway, laying bare his private parts to those close by.

“The pilot became visibly enraged, broke the lock on the door and forced the door to the bathroom open, pulling Liebb out of the bathroom with his pants still around his ankles, exposing his genitalia to Sebbag, several flight attendants, and the nearby passengers on the plane,” the lawsuit alleged.

In the lawsuit, Liebb said he felt “sexually violated and embarrassed after having been publicly exposed in the nude” and alleged the pilot made antisemitic remarks following his removal from the bathroom, noting that he and Sebbag are Orthodox Jewish.

“With Sebbag leading Liebb, the pilot proceeded to repeatedly push the [two] back to their seats while making threats of getting [them] arrested and making scathing remarks about their Judaism, and how ‘Jews act’,” the lawsuit alleged.

The plane eventually landed in Houston, with the pair reportedly removed from the flight in handcuffs by approximately six US Customs and Border Protection officers.

Liebb and Sebbag have since claimed in the lawsuit that the handcuffs left them with “severe wrist pain” that “persisted for days afterwards”.

The pair missed their connecting flight to New York City due to the incident. While United gave them free connecting flights for the following day, the costs for accommodation and food during their overnight stay left them even further out of pocket.

So far, United Airlines has declined to comment on the incident when approached by media outlets.