Lufthansa Fined $4 Million By US Government For Jewish Passenger Discrimination
Lufthansa faces a $4 million fine from the United States Department of Transportation and a strict warning never to lump passengers, Jewish or otherwise, together on the basis of their ethnicity or religion.
US Levies $4 Million Fine Against Lufthansa After Discrimination Against Jewish Passengers In Frankfurt
Our story takes us back to 2022, a story I covered then, in which all (identifiable) Jewish passengers were removed from a Frankfurt to Budapest flight because of the poor behavior of a limited number of Jewish passengers traveling from New York to Frankfurt.
The incident occurred on Lufthansa 401 from New York (JFK) to Frankfurt (FRA) on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 onboard a Boeing 747-8
As many as 170 Orthodox Jews were traveling on the flight, with many connecting to Budapest to visit the grave of Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner of Kerestir
This included a trio of group bookings as well as many individual bookings
Some Jewish passengers onboard refused to wear masks despite repeated reminders from flight attendants
These Orthodox passengers also apparently annoyed flight attendants by performing prayer in the galley, leading to a warning from the captain over the PA that the passengers were not to block galley and had to wear masks or else they would “have a problem” with their connecting flight
Upon landing in Frankfurt, passengers connecting to Budapest were individually paged, with most (but not all) Jewish passengers denied boarding for their onward flight to Budapest
The Budapest flight took off with less than 20 passengers, operated by an aircraft that could handle 192 passengers
A gate agent allegedly told a passenger that this was at the insistence of the captain, who decided he did not want to risk any trouble on the flight to Budapest
Armed police officers surrounded the gate area and shielded Lufthansa agents from direct questioning over why all passengers who seemingly appeared Jewish were being denied boarding for the mask violations of a few
One angry passenger called a police officer a Nazi, which is a crime in Germany
Passengers were rebooked on later flights, with many not being permitted to travel until the following day
Video (see here) is damning and Lufthansa was forced to apologize (with handwritten notes from the CEO) and sent every impacted Jewish passenger a $21,000 payment (with some of that going to attorneys).
Two years later, the DOT issued a cease and desist to Lufthansa, instructing the German airline never to engage in such behavior again, and also fined Lufthansa $4 million:
Lufthansa took action that had an adverse effect on these passengers whose only affiliation with each other was that they were of the same religion and/or ethnicity. Lufthansa’s actions impacted passengers who did not engage in problematic conduct. OACP finds that, under the totality of the circumstances, Lufthansa’s treatment of the 128 Jewish passengers as a collective group, based on the alleged misconduct of a smaller number of those individuals, constitutes discrimination based on religion in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 40127.
Based on our review of available evidence, we find that Lufthansa’s staff made no meaningful effort to specifically identify and track the individuals who failed to follow crew instructions to abide by the applicable laws and regulations, and to tailor the consequences accordingly. Those efforts could have included obtaining the names and likenesses of the misbehaving passengers and linking them to the seats they were sitting in. To the extent that misbehaving passengers were out of their seats, Lufthansa staff could have tracked which seats were empty and then identified which passengers took those seats. While these processes may not have been perfect, they would have resulted in tracking the individuals about whom Lufthansa had concerns and would have significantly reduced the likelihood that innocent passengers would be denied boarding for discriminatory reasons. Instead, Lufthansa has failed to show that its crew took any action to document the identities of specific passengers who engaged in misconduct.
And while I’m not sure the $4 million fine was necessary, the DOT’s message is clear and appreciated: you cannot punish all passengers who “look alike” because a few of them act up (when not acting in defense of imminent harm, for those who may broaden the group punishment discussion). It is unacceptable anywhere, but particularly uneccpetable in the developed world (and legally, on a carrier that serves the United States or impacts US citizens).
I hope Lufthansa has learned a very valuable lesson here.