Jewish family kicked off American Airlines flight for ‘body odour’ accuse carrier of religious discrimination

American Airlines said there had been complaints of body odour from other passengers

A family who were thrown off an American Airlines flight for alleged “body odour” have accused the carrier of singling them out for being Jewish.

Returning home from holiday, Yossi and Jennie Adler and their 19-month-old daughter were due to fly from Miami to Detroit on 23 January, but after boarding the flight they were asked to leave the plane by crew and were not allowed back on.

Staff told them other passengers had been complaining about their odour.

“I said: ‘Excuse me? I need to get home. There is no body odour on me,’” Yossi told NBC News.

“There’s no body odour that we have, there’s nothing wrong with us.”

The Adlers filmed an altercation with ground staff after they were thrown off the flight.

During the video, the male staff member says: “You told me for religious reasons you don’t shower? Is that what you said?”

Yossi, off camera, can be heard responding: “No, I didn’t! I shower every day,” while Jennie agrees, “We’ve all had showers today.”

Yossi adds: “I said you kicked me off because of religious reasons.

“There’s a religious reason they’re kicking me off the plane.”

He told ABC News: “I’m very frustrated. I want [American Airlines] to own up to what really happened and tell me the truth.”

The Adlers also say crew assured them their bags would be removed from the flight, which they were not. This left the couple without their pushchair, car seat or anything other than the clothes they were wearing.

They were rebooked onto a flight the following day.

Jennie said: “We stopped several people in the airport and it’s embarrassing but we asked them, ‘Do you think we smell? Because we just got kicked off a plane for smelling.’

“And they were like, ‘Oh my God, we’re so embarrassed for you that somebody would do such a thing, no!’”

American Airlines said in a statement on Wednesday: “Mr Adler and his wife were removed from the flight when several passengers complained about their body odour. They have been booked into a hotel for the night and given meal vouchers. They have been rebooked on a flight Thursday.”

According to American Airlines’ company handbook, staff are allowed to remove passengers from a flight if they have an “offensive odour not caused by disability or illness.”

The Adler family have since been flown home and reunited with their luggage.