{"id":294397,"date":"2025-07-26T22:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T22:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/294397\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T22:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T22:41:15","slug":"france-probes-whether-jewish-teens-removed-from-flight-due-to-religion-pilots-9-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/294397\/","title":{"rendered":"France probes whether Jewish teens removed from flight due to religion; pilot’s 9\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"

The incident occurred Wednesday, when 44 children and teenagers aged 10 to 15, along with eight adult chaperones, were removed from flight VY8166 before departure<\/a>. According to witnesses, the group was asked to disembark, and the situation escalated when the group\u2019s director was arrested, handcuffed and had her phone confiscated. She was later released after signing a non-disclosure agreement. The group returned to France on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s director arrested and handcuffed <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

France\u2019s Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot had contacted Vueling CEO Carolina Martinoli to express \u201cdeep concern\u201d over the removal of the French Jewish youth group. Barrot also requested additional information to determine \u201cwhether the minors were discriminated against because of their religion.\u201d A similar request was submitted to the Spanish ambassador to France.<\/p>\n

Martinoli assured Barrot that Vueling has launched an internal investigation and will share the findings with authorities in both France and Spain, according to the ministry.<\/p>\n

Vueling denied the incident was motivated by religious discrimination, stating the passengers were removed after repeatedly interfering with the aircraft\u2019s emergency equipment and disrupting the flight crew\u2019s safety demonstration.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

3 View gallery <\/p>\n

\"\u05de\u05e2\u05e6\u05e8<\/a>\"\u05de\u05e2\u05e6\u05e8<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s director arrested and handcuffed <\/p>\n

(Photo: Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Civil Guard also said the group consisted of French citizens and that officers involved were unaware of the passengers\u2019 religious background. A spokesperson added that the plane\u2019s captain ordered their removal from Valencia\u2019s Manises Airport after they ignored repeated instructions from the crew.<\/p>\n

Pilot who removed Jewish teens once trained 9\/11 hijackers<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, it was revealed that the pilot who ordered the removal of Jewish passengers from a Vueling flight was Iv\u00e1n Chirivella Cruz, a Spanish aviator who once unknowingly trained two of the 9\/11 hijackers at a Florida flight school. The revelation, first raised by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, was later confirmed by the airline.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Vueling acknowledged that Chirivella, a native of the Canary Islands, has been flying with the airline since 2006 and was indeed the captain of the disputed flight. \u201cOver his 19-year career at Vueling, he has accumulated more than 12,500 flight hours, operating routes connecting over 30 countries,\u201d the airline said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

3 View gallery <\/p>\n

\"\u05d4\u05e7\u05d1\u05e8\u05e0\u05d9\u05d8<\/a>\"\u05d4\u05e7\u05d1\u05e8\u05e0\u05d9\u05d8<\/p>\n

Iv\u00e1n Chirivella Cruz’s LinkedIn profile <\/p>\n

(Photo: Screengrab)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to his role as an airline captain, Iv\u00e1n Chirivella – like many pilots – also works as an instructor for aviation professionals at an independent flight school. In this capacity, he has trained more than 100 pilots from around the world in flight operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a report in The Telegraph, Chirivella called in Spain\u2019s Guardia Civil to remove the group due to \u201cdisruptive behavior\u201d and a \u201cconfrontational attitude\u201d toward the cabin crew.<\/p>\n

Businessman Mart\u00edn Varsavsky, speaking to the Spanish Jewish outlet Enfoque Jud\u00edo, defended Chirivella, saying he has known and trusted him for over two decades, dating back to when he hired him as his private pilot after the 9\/11 attacks. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s devastated,\u201d said Varsavsky. \u201cThe hijackers deceived him, like they did many others. No one wanted to hire him after that, but I did\u2014and I\u2019ve never doubted him since. In all these years, I have never seen even a hint of antisemitism in him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Spain\u2019s Federation of Jewish Communities expressed concern over the incident and urged Vueling to release documentation of what transpired on the flight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The incident occurred Wednesday, when 44 children and teenagers aged 10 to 15, along with eight adult chaperones,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-294397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114921949725608723","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}