A couple and their 19-month-old daughter, booted from their American Airlines, after passengers complained about their ‘overpowering body odor’, say they were unfairly targeted because they are Jewish.
Yossi Adler, his wife Jennie, and their toddler were asked to get off the flight due to fly home from Miami, Florida to Detroit, Michigan after several passengers and crew members complained about their body odor, American Airlines said in a statement.
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According to the reports, the smell was so strong it even wafted into the cockpit, affecting the pilot. Adler told WJBK he was initially informed there was an emergency and they had to get off the plane. Once he and his family were back in the airport, Adler said, the plane took off without them – with their child’s seat and luggage still on board.
He claims the airline staff went on to tell him that people on board had complained he had an unpleasant body odor. “Our crew members smelled it and our pilot smelled it and the pilot says we can’t let you fly in this plane because the B.O.’s too bad,” he claimed they told him.
Adler recorded an exchange he had with an American Airlines employee in the airport.
“We don’t have odor, okay, nobody here has odor,” an irate Adler says in the video, insisting that staff had a “religious reason” for kicking him off the aircraft.
The airline officials responds: “You told me for religious reasons you don’t shower, is that what you said?” Adler then denies this, saying he already explained that his family had showered, and repeated that they were kicked off for religious reasons.
In a statement about the Adlers’ removal, the airline said its staff “took care of the family and provided hotel accommodations and meals” before rebooking them on a flight home the next morning.
