Eighteen American Orthodox Jewish girls are barred from KLM flight and fined $3,000 for taking their masks off to eat on trip home to New York from Ukraine

Eighteen American Orthodox Jewish girls were barred from boarding a flight home to New York from Amsterdam after a flight attendant allegedly scolded them for taking their masks off to eat. 

The girls, all from New York and New Jersey, were part of a group of 55 who took a trip to visit religious sites in Kyiv, Ukraine, and were traveling home on flights run by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines on Thursday.

During the first leg of their trip from Kyiv to Amsterdam, the girls were confronted by KLM flight attendants who caught them with their masks down while they ate kosher meals, rabbi Yisroel Kahan told Fox News.  

Kahan - who leads a congregation in Monsey, New York, and is executive director of the Oizrim Jewish Council - said the flight attendants ordered the girls to fix their masks, telling them: 'You can't eat now, it's not meal time.' 

He said KLM attempted to charge the girls roughly $3,000 to resolve the issue, with extra charges for baggage. 

When they reached Amsterdam, 18 of the girls were told they could not board their second flight to New York, Kahan said. He noted that the girls appeared to have been targeted alphabetically, because all of their last names were between A and K. 

The girls had to spend the night in a 'cordoned off area of the airport', Kahan said. 

Kahan said he suspects anti-Semitism may have played a role in the ordeal, saying: 'I'm not God, I don't know people's motives, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. I'm highly suspicious of the motives.' 

Eighteen girls had to sleep in a 'cordoned off area' at the Amsterdam airport after they were kicked off their flight for allegedly eating outside of designated meal times, their rabbi says

The girls were part of a group of 55 Orthodox Jewish girls visiting holy sites in Europe

Their flight from Amsterdam to New York was operated jointly by KLM airlines (file photo)

BREAKING: After 24 hours in the airport, the remaining group members were already in their seats on @Delta, when a mother asked one of them to switch seats so that she can sit next to her son. And for that SIN, they were deplaned. pic.twitter.com/CwYaxBv83P

— Rabbi Yisroel Kahan 🇺🇸 (@ykahan) August 6, 2021

BREAKING: After 24 hours in the airport, the remaining group members were already in their seats on @Delta, when a mother asked one of them to switch seats so that she can sit next to her son. And for that SIN, they were deplaned. pic.twitter.com/CwYaxBv83P

The chaperone with the girls chose to stay back with them at the Amsterdam airport and called Kahan - who then contacted New York Sen Chuck Schumer for help. 

KLM allows passengers to temporarily remove their masks while eating or drinking, according to the airline's website. 

Schumer's office contacted Delta CEO Ed Bastian, who then helped get the girls on another flight home. 

However their troubles were far from over as they were later booted from that flight after boarding because they switched seats with a woman who wanted to sit next to her son, Kahan said.   

Upon noticing the seat swap, a flight attended reportedly chided the girls for 'not obeying the rules' and ordered that the entire group get off the plane.  

'The flight attendants start to announce the names of the girls, say they have to come down,' a passenger who wished to remain anonymous told Fox News.

'The girls started to cry. They didn't feel they did anything wrong here. Why are they so nasty to them?' 

A KLM security guard also allegedly 'jeered' at the girls and forced them to delete any video of the encounter in their first flight.

The woman who switched seats with one of the girls says it 'worked out for both sides.' Still, the flight was delayed for two hours as the girls were deplaned

In a video posted to Kahan's Twitter account, the woman who switched seats with one of the girls on the plane headed to New York appears to back them up after they were taken off.

'We didn't have seats together and asked to switch and have the seats together,' the woman says in a noisy airport gate. 

'It worked out for both sides, no issues whatsoever.'

One of the girls chimes in with what happened next.  

Rabbi Yisroel Kahan says the girls' religion may have played a part in their treatment

'The stewardess came and she asked us if we switched seats. I said yes, she said, "We don't allow switching seats," so we switched right back.' 

The group's chaperone contacted an attorney who advised them not to leave their seats. 

Delta was then forced to offload the entire plane, delaying the flight by two hours and causing the girls to head to a Jewish community in Antwerp, Belgium to await their flight on Sunday.

The rabbi says he doesn't understand why the entire group had to leave.

'If you punch someone, the cops don't get to arrest me just because we were traveling together,' he said. 

The second flight was operated by Delta Airlines, which is a part-owner of KLM.

Delta spokesman Anthony Black told DailyMail.com that only part of the group of 55 was removed from a rescheduled flight after failing to comply with crew instructions, which is a federal crime. 

Incidents of in-flight disruptions have risen as people feel safer traveling thanks to vaccines. 

Over the past decade, the FAA investigated about 140 cases of unruly passengers a year for possible enforcement. This year, the agency has investigated 628 cases so far.

In a statement, KLM alleged the group had been unruly on their way to Amsterdam last month. 

'On the 20th of July a large group of passengers on flight KL644 from New York JFK to Amsterdam refused to follow crew instructions on board,' said KLM spokesperson Gerrie Brand.

'Upon arrival in Amsterdam this group was again cautioned and explained the possible consequences of unruly behavior by KLM's security department. It was also made very clear that this was the last warning.

'The same group travelled from Kiev to Amsterdam on the 5th of August and again did not adhere to crew instructions and showed unruly behavior on board.

'Upon arrival, a group of 21 passengers (1 booking) was therefore offloaded and not allowed to travel on to New York.'

Delta offered the girls another flight home at 5pm Friday, but Kahan said the plane would have gotten in too late because of Shabbat. 

The girls and their chaperone arrived in New York Sunday afternoon, Kahan tweeted.