Despite having been notified that an Orthodox Jewish man in an airplane restroom had a medical condition, a United Airlines pilot allegedly forced the bathroom door open, thus exposing the man and causing “public embarrassment and anxiety,” according to a lawsuit filed against the airline on March 19.
Per the complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Yisroel Liebb and Jacob Sebbag—residents of New Jersey and New York, respectively, and both dressed in “traditional Jewish garb”—were on a Jan. 28 flight from Tulum, Mexico, to Houston, Texas, when a stewardess woke Sebbag up and asked him to check on Liebb after the latter had been in the bathroom for 20 minutes.
“Sebbag complied and asked Liebb if he was alright. Liebb responded that he was alright but experiencing constipation and would be out shortly,” the complaint states. “Sebbag relayed this to the stewardess and returned to his seat.”
After 10 minutes, a pilot asked Sebbag to “approach the bathroom to once again try and get Liebb out of the bathroom,” per the complaint. “The pilot began yelling loudly at Liebb, demanding he leave the bathroom immediately. The pilot soon turned to Sebbag and began loudly demanding he force Liebb out of the bathroom.”

Though Liebb told the pilot through the door that “he was okay, that he was finishing up and that he would be out momentarily,” the pilot “became visibly enraged, broke the lock on the door and forced the door to the bathroom open, pulling Liebb out of the bathroom with his pants still around his ankles, exposing his genitalia to Sebbag, several flight attendants and the nearby passengers on the plane,” according to the complaint.
“With Sebbag leading Liebb, the pilot proceeded to repeatedly push the plaintiffs back to their seats while making threats of getting the plaintiffs arrested and making scathing remarks about their Judaism, and how ‘Jews act,’” the complaint further alleges.
When the plane landed, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents boarded the plane, told everyone else to remain seated, approached Liebb, “pulled him from his seat, bent his arms behind his back, cuffed him and began escorting him to the front of the plane,” per the complaint.
“The CBP agents then asked Sebbag if he knew Liebb. Sebbag replied that he and Lieb are merely acquaintances. The agent asked Sebbag if Liebb was in his phone contacts, which Sebbag responded affirmatively to,” it adds. “The CBP agent then pulled Sebbag from his seat and escorted him to a DHS facility, where he was then handcuffed.” (The plaintiffs are suing United Airlines, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration.)
As they were taken off the plane, Liebb said that he and Sebbag had a legal right to know the reason for their detention. “The CBP agents escorting the plaintiffs responded that ‘This isn’t county or state. We are Homeland. You have no rights here,’” per the complaint. (Both plaintiffs are U.S. citizens.)
“After the previous remark, the CBP agent escorting Liebb tightened his handcuffs to the point that he verbally spoke out against the pain,” the complaint adds. “Liebb pleaded with the CBP agent escorting him to please loosen the handcuffs as he had been cooperating fully and was not a threat.”
Both plaintiffs also suffered physical injuries, per the complaint, with Liebb adding that he “feels sexually violated and embarrassed after having been publicly exposed in the nude.”
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