The Spilling of Blood that is Embarrassment

The Adler family - publicly embarrassed by an airline pilot (VIN)

Outside of physical harm, I can’t think of too many things worse than being embarrassed in public. That is a type of antisemitism that really gets to me. From VIN:

An Orthodox Jewish couple from Detroit who were asked to exit an American Airlines plane because the pilot said they had offensive body odor have filed a federal lawsuit against the airline. 

I can’t begin to imagine how the Adlers, an Orthodox Jewish couple, must have felt having to go through that kind of public humiliation. The Gemarah in Bava Metzia (58b) tells us that making someone’s face ‘white’ (i.e. embarrassing them) is tantamount to spilling their blood!

Based on their comments, I highly doubt that the Adlers were ‘guilty’ of what they were accused of. Especially in light of the response to that by the agent of that ‘defendant’  (which I assume they meant the pilot) to that couple’s evidence that there was no such ‘offensive body odor’ emanating from either of them or their daughter: 

“In response, defendant’s agent made disparaging and derogatory statements telling the Adlers that he knew that Orthodox Jews take baths once a week,” the complaint states. 

What makes this story news worthy is the fact that neither I nor anyone I know has ever been treated  even remotely this way by airline personnel.  I have always been treated with the kind of professional courtesy and kindness one might expect from flight professionals. Some of the nicest people I have ever encountered are flight attendants.

I don’t know about airline pilots, though. I rarely ever even see them let alone have any interaction with them.  Apparently being an antisemite does not disqualify them from flying an airplane. But... I will give American Airlines the benefit of the doubt and assume they didn’t know about this particular pilot’s antisemitism.

Not that this should let them off the hook. It is under their watch that this happened and at the very least they should compensate these passengers for the embarrassment they suffered at the hands of one of their employees. Especially one as important as a pilot.

That being said, there is not a doubt in my mind that this pilot should be fired. And he ought to be blackballed by the entire industry – never to fly a commercial airliner again. That - plus a monetary settlement would in my view would be a just outcome. Without it, I don’t think a monetary settlement alone would, or should suffice.