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A Queens couple claims their family was unfairly kicked off a JetBlue flight to New York because they are Orthodox Jews, according to a $40 million lawsuit against the airline.
Michael Nektalov, 42, his wife Miryem Yushanayev and their five children were returning from a vacation to Aruba on February 4, 2021 when they and another Jewish family were kicked off the plane.
The couple was dressed according to “the custom of our religious community,” including a head covering for Miryem and a long beard and kippah for Michael, according to Brooklyn Federal Court documents.
The family also sometimes spoke in Hebrew.
The “uncomfortable” couple said they knew “problems would arise somehow” after JetBlue employees gave them “disdainful and dirty looks,” they said in court papers.
Just before takeoff, the plane returned to the gate, the family said in court documents.
When Nektalov’s wife asked one of the flight attendants what was happening, “the only thing they said was, ‘Oh, your mask came off your nose,'” they said in the legal filing, adding, “then he took note from his seat.”
The mother was then removed from the plane after being falsely accused of not wearing a mask, the family alleged, while another Jewish family was also asked to leave.
When the Jewish families asked why they were being kicked out, a JetBlue employee allegedly announced “loudly” that if “we didn’t all get off the plane, the entire plane would have to be disembarked.”
“At that moment, I felt like we were in Nazi Germany and we were being isolated, vilified and herded out,” Nektalov said at the Jan. 26 performance.
A JetBlue spokesperson said the company had not yet reviewed the lawsuit.
“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind at JetBlue. …We take any claims like this seriously and will work to fully understand the facts of what happened at this event,” said spokesman Derek Dombrowski.
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