Updated: July 25th, 2025.
Valencia, Spain – A Vueling airline flight became the scene of a dramatic incident this week when approximately 50 Jewish children, participants in the Kinneret Club summer camp, and their director were forcibly removed from a plane. The event, which unfolded on Wednesday, has sparked outrage from Jewish organizations and Israeli officials who decry it as a serious antisemitic act. The airline maintains the removal was due to passenger misconduct, but new details and allegations are complicating their narrative, including that Iván Chirivella – famous for training 9/11 hijackers – was the captain of this flight.
Social media footage captured the moments following the deplaning of the children, aged between 10 and 15, all from France. According to Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli, the children were singing songs in Hebrew on the plane, stopped singing when staff demanded, and the camp director was subsequently arrested. Chikli stated that the children are currently in Valencia, where their camp was held, awaiting their return to France.
Vueling’s Allegations Called Into Question
The core of the dispute revolves around inconsistencies with passenger’s accounts and what Vueling staff claimed. Some of the teenagers involved spoke to the Spanish Jewish newspaper Enfoque Judío (Jewish Focus), claiming that the crew became hostile once they began singing in Hebrew. According to reports, the group – part of a Jewish summer camp – stopped singing when asked, but police were called anyway and ordered the campers and their director off the plane. When the camp director reportedly refused, the staff requested the children’s cell phones, a request she also declined, leading to the dramatic scene captured on video.
This account is corroborated by a passenger on the plane who was not affiliated with the group, and who posted on Instagram: “I was returning from Valencia with my daughter and no one on the plane understood what was happening, because the group got on the plane normally, without shouting – which is rare in teenagers. I insist that they behaved well for teenagers. During the security instructions, they called the police because they mentioned a security problem on the plane… and finally they made the children disembark and took off two and a half hours late for nothing. I mean the kids stayed polite and left the plane calmly.”
Another passenger, identified as Damien, told the French daily Le Parisien,
“I didn’t hear any noise or screams. No one really understood what was going on. I was expecting to see someone drunk standing up, but no. Nothing.”
Vueling, however, issued a statement on Thursday, asserting that the group was removed due to their “highly combative attitude that was putting the safety of the flight at risk.” The airline further claimed that a group of teenagers mishandled emergency equipment and were confrontational during the mandatory safety demonstration, ignoring cabin crew safety instructions. Vueling emphasized that the actions taken by the on-board staff were “solely in response” to behavior that compromised passenger safety, and were unrelated to the passengers’ religion. The airline stated that the crew requested the intervention of the Guardia Civil, who ultimately decided to deplane the group to prioritize passenger safety.
However, some witnesses allege staff made inflammatory remarks, including calling Israel a “terrorist state.” Furthermore, an image has circulated on social media, purportedly showing the pilot’s cockpit with a Palestinian flag on the center controls.
Though 604News has not been able to verify the veracity of the photo, digital analysis by two leading AI models – ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini – indicate the photo is not AI-generated or otherwise manipulated.
Qatar Owns 25% of the Vueling’s Parent Company
The Kinneret Club has announced its intention to initiate legal proceedings against the airline, labeling the incident a “purely antisemitic act,” while assuring parents that their children were safe in a hotel and would return home.
The incident has drawn significant international attention. The World Jewish Congress condemned the incident, stating, “Singing in Hebrew is not illegal. Existing as a group of Jewish people together is not illegal.”
Vueling is a low-cost airline that operates short-haul flights to 113 destinations across Europe and North Africa. It is part of the International Airlines Group (IAG), formed through a merger between British Airways and Iberia. IAG acquired Vueling in 2012 and also owns the Irish carrier Aer Lingus.
Jewish billionaire investor Bill Ackman highlighted that Qatar owns about 25% of IAG, and asked for the CEO and board of directors to be held accountable.
Qatar is a known financier and promoter of Islamic terrorism.
As of late Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed that most of the Jewish campers had reached their intended destination, with the remaining passengers departing on a separate flight shortly thereafter. The Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassy in Madrid “maintained continuous contact” with authorities at the airport following the incident. In a Hebrew-language statement, the ministry added, “Israel, the Foreign Ministry, and Israeli missions around the world will continue to act and provide assistance to Israelis and Jews in distress wherever they may be.”
This incident comes amidst a week where the Foreign Ministry has intervened in several other cases concerning Israeli and Jewish safety abroad. These include an Israeli-owned cruise ship being blocked by anti-Israel protestors from docking at a Greek island, and two Israeli civilians who were briefly detained in Belgium after an organization known for harassing Israeli citizens lodged a complaint against them, falsely claiming war crimes.
This story was updated once the airline confirmed that the pilot was indeed Iván Chirivella. The updated full story can be found here: Vueling Updates: Airline Confirms Same Captain That Trained 9/11 Hijackers Was Flight VY8166 Pilot
