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BREAKING: N.Y. Plane Grounded Due to Tefillin Scare

Jewish leather straps confused for explosive device

by
Marc Tracy
January 21, 2010
This West Bank settler is wearing tefillin, not a bomb.(Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)
This West Bank settler is wearing tefillin, not a bomb.(Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)

A U.S. Air flight headed from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport to Louisville, Kentucky, was diverted to Philadelphia, evacuated, and quarantined after a teenaged man on the flight wrapping himself in tefillin—the traditional Jewish phylactery—was mistaken for a teenaged man on the flight wrapping himself in something that could blow the plane up. Reportedly, a female flight attendant had never seen tefillin before (maybe she skipped that day of Hebrew School?). Flights at the relevant airports are unaffected—or so they say.

UPDATE: A new report says one man was taken into custody.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.