Lufthansa pays record $4m fine for barring Jewish passengers from flight

German hose blocked 128 Jewish travellers implicit alleged misbehaviour of a fewer passengers, US authorities say.

Lufthansa has agreed to a $4m good implicit an incidental successful which much than 100 Jewish travellers were barred from boarding their flight.

The German hose blocked the travellers – galore of whom were wearing distinctive covering typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men – from boarding a connecting formation successful Frankfurt successful May 2022 based connected the alleged misbehaviour of a fewer passengers, the US Department of Transportation said connected Tuesday.

Passengers interviewed by authorities said the hose had treated the 128 Jewish travellers travelling from New York City to Budapest arsenic a “single group” adjacent though galore of them did not cognize each different and were not travelling together, the DOT said.

The section said the punishment was the largest it had ever issued against an hose for violating civilian rights law.

“No 1 should look favoritism erstwhile they travel, and today’s enactment sends a wide connection to the hose manufacture that we are prepared to analyse and instrumentality enactment whenever passengers’ civilian rights are violated,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said successful a statement.

Lufthansa did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.

In its effect to the DOT, Lufthansa said it regretted and had publically apologised for the incident, which resulted from an “unfortunate bid of inaccurate communications, misinterpretations, and misjudgments”, according to a ineligible bid filed by the department.

The carrier, however, denied that its employees had engaged successful favoritism and said its actions, “although regrettable, bash not enactment immoderate uncovering of favoritism and the Department’s findings successful this case”.

Lufthansa said the misbehaviour involving a fig of passengers included obstructing formation attendants and arguing with the unit astir wearing masks.

The DOT said successful its bid that the hose had “concluded it was not applicable to code each rider individually”.

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies