A couple of orthodox Jews engaged in a pretty common prayer ritual, where they wrap leather straps on their forearms and lash a little leather box to their foreheads.
The cockpit was placed on a security lockdown for the rest of the flight _ meaning the door couldn’t be opened even for pilots to leave briefly. Normal protocol calls for the cockpit to be locked, but on longer flights the pilots will leave and return from the flight deck.
FBI and customs agents along with police and a full assignment of fire trucks met the plane at the gate at Los Angeles International Airport, and the men were escorted off. (source)
Seriously? Not a single person in any position of authority on that plane had ever seen an orthojew pray before? Not even on television? Nobody on the plane could educate them?
Meanwhile, the entire security apparatus at Richmond International Airport was mobilized to deal with a 21 year old who committed the grave crime of removing his shirt to reveal the Fourth Amendment written on his chest. (source) He isn’t taking it lying down — he’s sued the TSA, and it does not appear to be a crackpot case.
