Uman Drunks Cause 3 Hour Delay After Blowing Shofar and Guzzlng Arak on Plane

A flight from Israel to Ukraine was delayed on Tuesday, 17 Elul, as a group of eight people heading to Uman were removed from the flight after creating a significant disturbance before boarding.

The Ukraine International Airlines flight to was scheduled to take off from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv at 3:00PM, enroute to Kiev, but was delayed for three hours.

The group of eight arrived at the entrance to the plane, and two of them were apparently drunk. According to reports, one of them complained of feeling ill, prompting the flight crew to refuse to permit them to board. Another member of the group began cursing and confronting the crew.

According to reports, the group had created a scene at the airport; playing, singing, shouting wildly and blowing shofars, while holding a bottle of Arak whiskey.

An airport manager summoned police, and the disorderly bunch physically assaulted police too. The plane’s crew, including the pilots who left their positions when they heard the uproar, asked the police to take the passenger and his friends off the plane.

Compounding the problem, due to the fact that these passengers were removed from the plane, their suitcases also needed to be be removed. The unloading process took a long time, causing the flight to take off about three hours later.

“Every year there are many incidents with passengers traveling to Uman,” a senior official at Ben-Gurion Airport told Ynet. He said there are many people who want to go to Uman for Rosh Hashana and come to the airport without tickets, asking for ‘handouts’ from other passengers. Quite a few of them arrive at the flight at the last minute as if “they were on the bus.”

The official added “there are passengers who arrive to the plane drunk, or even drugged; and there are those who arrive with plastic bags instead of suitcases.”

It is important to note that for Rosh Hashana, tens of thousands of people arrive at Uman, most of whom behave in a proper manner, but naturally the few cases attract attention and cause an unfortunate Chilul Hashem.