US fines Lufthansa $4 million for treatment of Orthodox Jewish passengers on a 2022 flight

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States fined German airline Lufthansa $4 million for its treatment of a group of Jewish passengers who were denied boarding a 2022 flight in Frankfurt after they had flown to Germany from New York.

The U.S. Transportation Department said Tuesday that the fine is the largest the agency has issued against an airline for civil-rights violations, although Lufthansa was given credit for $2 million for compensation it gave the passengers, cutting the fine in half.

The department said most of the 128 passengers who were denied boarding “wore distinctive garb typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men." Although many did not know each other and were not traveling together, they told investigators that Lufthansa treated them as if they were a group and denied boarding to all over alleged misbehavior by a few passengers.

They were among 131 passengers who were flying from New York through Frankfurt to Budapest to attend an annual memorial event to honor an Orthodox rabbi.

Some said flight attendants told them on the first flight about the requirement to wear a face mask and not to gather in aisles or near emergency exits. The Lufthansa crew members did not identify any passengers who failed to obey their instructions, which the airline said was due to the sheer number of violations and because many traded seats during the flight.

The captain alerted Lufthansa security about misbehavior among the passengers, which set in motion the steps that led to their being denied boarding on the connecting flight, according to a consent order in the case.

Lufthansa rejected “any allegation by the Department that the events in this matter resulted from any form of discrimination” and disputes that any employee acted on bias, but it acknowledged “errors in company procedure and communications.”

Lufthansa reached a settlement with most of the passengers in 2022.

FILE - A Lufthansa Airbus takes off at Frankfurt Airport above other passenger aircraft of the airline, Germany, Monday, March 23, 2020. (Arne Dedert/dpa via AP, File)

US fines Lufthansa $4 million for treatment of Orthodox Jewish passengers on a 2022 flight

US fines Lufthansa $4 million for treatment of Orthodox Jewish passengers on a 2022 flight

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germany on Saturday was still in shock and struggling to understand the suspect behind the attack in the city of Magdeburg.

Identified by local media as 50-year-old Taleb A., a psychiatry and psychotherapy specialist, authorities said he has been living in Germany for two decades. He was arrested on site after plowing a black BMW into a Christmas market crowded with holiday shoppers Friday evening, killing at least five people and wounding about 200 others.

Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann posted on X that he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile.

Taleb’s X account is filled with tweets and retweets focusing on anti-Islam themes and criticism of the religion while sharing congratulatory notes to Muslims who left the faith. He also described himself as a former Muslim.

He was critical of German authorities, saying they had failed to do enough to combat the “Islamism of Europe.”

He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Some described Taleb as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers.

Neumann, the terrorism expert, wrote: “After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar."

A person stands by flowers and candles placed outside St. John's Church near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)