Eighteen young British nationals were thrown off a London-bound flight on Sunday after one member of the group made a comment about having a bomb in his baggage.
After news of the comment emerged, the captain was instructed by British Airways to take the group - who had been at a stag party in Israel - off the plane.
According to Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism, Laura Janner-Klausner, who was on the plane, the person who made the "joke" was drunk and mistreating the cabin crew.
After the group had been removed, a security team was sent to the area, which inspected passengers and the aircraft.
The baggage belonging to the 18-strong group was removed from the flight, which took off for London shortly afterwards. The young men remained in the terminal.
British Airways stated: "The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority. We take these matters extremely seriously, and the appropriate action will always be taken."
I was on this flight - the @_Britishairways team were outstanding! Thank you so much @Jerusalem_Post @ReformMovement https://t.co/Xaf4AFDyAo
— Senior Rabbi Janner-Klausner (@LauraJanklaus) June 23, 2019
Rabbi Janner-Klausner said: “There was a stag party and someone on it was very drunk and being stupid they were mistreating the staff and making ridiculous banter and made a joke about a bomb which anyone sensible knows you don’t do on a plane from Ben Gurion Airport.
“They were stupid but what was even worse was that before parents and young child had to be taken off because they were traveling with a child with suspected measles. That was even more stupid in my view and dangerous because they could have endangered pregnant people on the plane.”
She added that the British Airways staff were “outstanding” in the way they the handling the incident.
