The passengers were asked to leave the plane, thereby delaying the flight to Atlanta by 45 minutes. When the students failed to comply with requests from the crew and captain, they were forced off.
But the passengers have a different take. They say the pilot and crew overreacted and blew the situation out of proportion. One rabbi denied that the students were being loud and disruptive. Rabbi Seth Linfield is one of the leaders of a yeshiva in Brooklyn, NY. According to him, the actions of the airline were uncalled for. Generally, the students insisted they had no intentions of causing trouble; they were just looking forward to their vacation.
In the wake of this back and forth, it has been suggested that the students were targeted because of their religion. Many of the kids felt they had been singled out in a way that would not have occurred if they had been non-religious, or even not Jewish.
