20 hours before Shabbat: El Al Flight canceled, leaving Haredim stranded in the US

An El Al flight from New York was canceled due to a technical issue, forcing dozens of Torah-observant passengers to abandon the airport and spend Shabbat in the U.S.

The ordeal began when passengers, scheduled to depart Thursday night at 9:00 PM on a regular El Al flight, faced prolonged delays at the airport. After hours of waiting, they were notified that the flight was canceled. The passengers, including many families, learned they had no way to reach Israel before Shabbat began, leaving them with no choice but to remain in the U.S. until Sunday. The airline cited a failure in the aircraft’s electrical panel as the reason it couldn’t take off.

One passenger at the scene shared the situation with Kikar HaShabbat. “Suddenly they told us the flight was delayed,” the passenger recounted. “Every hour they said ‘one more hour,’ and then they just canceled it. There are lots of families here with kids and babies—it’s an unbearable situation. We’re waiting for our luggage now. It’s not good. No one knows how they’ll fly or what they’ll do.”

As of 2:50 AM U.S. time, the luggage started being released. Frustration among the passengers is intense, especially since they weren’t informed of the issue earlier in the evening—a heads-up that could have allowed them to find alternatives and avoid significant distress.

Local U.S. community activists heard about the situation and quickly brought food and drinks to the stranded passengers.