US Issues Record Fine Against Lufthansa For Kicking 128 Jewish Passengers Off Plane

U.S. authorities have fined German airline Lufthansa $4 million for discriminating against Jewish passengers.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said it happened with Jewish passengers who were traveling from New York City through Frankfurt to Budapest on a flight in May 2022.

Some passengers refused to wear masks on the flight and Lufthansa prohibited 128 Jewish passengers – most of whom wore distinctive garb typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men – from boarding their connecting flight in Germany.

Authorities said many of the passengers did not know each other and were not traveling together and many of them complied with the mask rules.

Passengers told investigators that Lufthansa treated them all as if they were a single group and denied them boarding for the alleged misbehavior of a few people.

The penalty is the largest ever issued by the department against an airline for civil rights violations.

"No one should face discrimination when they travel, and today's action sends a clear message to the airline industry that we are prepared to investigate and take action whenever passengers' civil rights are violated," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The department said it received more than 40 discrimination complaints from Jewish passengers who were ticketed to fly from John F. Kennedy Airport and a final destination of Budapest, Hungary.

During the first flight, the captain alerted Lufthansa security that some passengers were failing to follow crew instructions and were connecting to another flight to Budapest, although Lufthansa later failed to identify any one passenger who failed to follow crewmember instructions.

The alert to security resulted on a hold being placed on over 100 passengers' tickets which then prevented passengers from boarding their connecting flight in Frankfurt.

All of the passengers with a hold placed on their ticket were Jewish.

The department said Lufthansa staff recognized that the refusal to transport the entire group could result in the exclusion of passengers who had complied with crew instructions but concluded it was not practical to address each passenger individually.

The American Jewish Committee and the Lufthansa Group announced a joint initiative to combat global antisemitism after the incident.