In an act worthy of a movie, the case of antisemitism on the flight operated by Vueling against Jewish children took an unexpected turn: the plane's pilot is allegedly the trainer of the terrorists who attacked the Twin Towers on 9/11.
This is Iván Chirivella, who is said to have been the flight instructor for the Islamic criminals who attacked the center of New York.
On Wednesday, a group of 52 French Jewish teenagers, between 13 and 15 years old, was expelled from a flight bound for Paris for singing traditional songs in Hebrew before takeoff.
The young people, who were part of a summer camp organized by the company Kinneret, were returning to France after their stay in Spain.
Images of violence against young people
According to the testimony of Karine Lamy, mother of one of the teenagers, the crew's reaction was one of "growing hostility." "One of the children started singing a song in Hebrew, and they were immediately warned that if they continued singing or making noise, the police would be called", she said in an interview.
Although the minors calmed down, minutes later the police stormed the plane and forced the entire group to leave the aircraft. The group's director, a 21-year-old woman, was arrested after refusing to hand over the teenagers' phones. A video shared on social media shows the young woman handcuffed and face down in the aisle of the plane, surrounded by shocked children.
According to witnesses, members of the crew went so far as to compare the teenagers to "terrorists" and to label Israel as a "murderous state".
The presence of a pilot with direct ties to the training of two 9/11 hijackers has raised the case to a level of international controversy.
An independent passenger traveling with his daughter stated on Instagram: "Nobody understood what was happening. The kids boarded calmly, even quiet for teenagers. During the safety instructions, the police were called for an alleged problem... but nobody saw anything unusual. They behaved politely and left the plane calmly."
After disembarking, the officers tried to confiscate the minors' phones to delete possible recordings, which led to the director's arrest.
