United pilot attacked passenger for taking too long in the bathroom, lawsuit alleges
www.theguardian.com
Yisroel Liebb of New Jersey claims pilot broke lock and pulled him out with his pants down, leaving him exposed

Summary

Orthodox Jewish passenger Yisroel Liebb filed a federal lawsuit claiming a United Airlines pilot forcibly removed him from an airplane bathroom during a January 2024 flight from Tulum to Houston, exposing his genitalia to passengers.

Liebb said he was experiencing constipation and had been in the bathroom for about 30 minutes when the pilot broke the lock and dragged him out.

After landing, Customs and Border Protection officers detained Liebb and another passenger, allegedly making derogatory remarks about their religion.

United Airlines and CBP declined to comment.

    • Monument@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      20·
      2 days ago

      The rules are that they can’t take off or land unless everyone is properly seated.

      The pooper was forcing the entire plane to remain in the air.

      Many years ago I was on a plane that hadn’t taken off yet, and someone was in the bathroom. They couldn’t taxi until the person returned to their seat, and after several announcements, flight attendants wind up having to knock on the door so the person (who I assume at that point was hiding due to embarrassment) would return to their seat. We missed our takeoff window with ground control and had to wait an additional half hour to find another window. All of my flights connecting flights were delayed until it could land, but a severe storm blew through, grounding most of them for about an hour more.
      In the world of flying, these sorts of small delays have unintended consequences with system-wide effects.

      But the pilot featured here was beyond the pale. That was a grotesque and inappropriate response.

      • IMALlama@lemmy.world
        5·
        2 days ago

        I wonder if they were in the air or on the ground. Based on the fact that they were detained after they landed I’m guessing they were in the air. The whole thing sounds very non-ideal. Reading through the discovery material, if the case makes it that far, will be interesting.

    • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
      6·
      2 days ago

      Airplanes have two pilots (edit: and most commonly, the less senior one is the one physically flying the plane I am wrong). It does happen that one or the other of them will leave the cockpit to deal with something in an emergency (which this is, since they can’t land the plane until it is dealt with). Presumably the captain is the one that dealt with Mr. Poosticks.

      • SpermHowitzer@sh.itjust.works
        7·
        2 days ago

        We just swap who flies each leg, I’ll do one, the other pilot will do the next, and so on. Seniority really doesn’t play into it at all. Usually we don’t leave the flight deck to deal with emergencies, we rely on the cabin crew for that.

        • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
          2·
          2 days ago

          Oh, TIL. Somehow I thought it was usually the more senior person was monitoring and less senior person was flying, but I guess that is not the case.