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I once asked Rav Chaim Malinowitz about a similar story I'd heard,
as it just seemed wrong to me, and a potential chillul Hashem, to
boot. His response was that the Jewish family certainly would have
no right to demand that the plane return to the gate - they took
responsibility when they got on the plane. But perhaps what they
should have done is offered to compensate all the passengers for the
delay, since one is liable to expend up to all of one's assets in
order to not violate a lav. Any errors in transmission are mine,
and of course, don't rely on this as halacha lema'aseh!<br>
<br>
On 9/25/11 4:04 PM, Prof. Levine wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:20110925210428.4D660301AA2@nexus.stevens.edu"
type="cite"> From
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://tinyurl.com/3okfklw"
eudora="autourl">
http://tinyurl.com/3okfklw</a><br>
<br>
<font size="3"><i>My husband and son took a New York-to-Milwaukee
flight
that was supposed to leave Friday at 11:29 a.m. The flight
boarded after
4 and didn’t leave the gate until 4:40, and a half-hour later
the pilot
announced it would be another hour until takeoff. At that
point a devout
Jewish family, worried about violating the Sabbath, asked to
get off.
Going back to the gate cost the plane its place in line for
takeoff, and
the flight was eventually canceled. Was the airline right to
grant that
request? </i>M. W.,NORWALK, CONN. <br>
<br>
Please see the response.<br>
<br>
Personally, I feel that this family had no business boarding a
flight
after 4 on a Friday afternoon. Indeed, is one allowed to this
according to halacha? YL</font>
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</blockquote>
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