An Orthodox Jewish man, who wanted to travel to San Francisco by plane, left his seat and went to the back of the plane to pray before the Flight 9 to San Francisco took off. He didn’t follow the flight attendants’ advices to return to his seat. As a result, he was ejected from the flight.

A witness said a man wearing a black hat and a long black coat had a small prayer book and he went to pray, ignoring the flight attendants’ orders to take his seat. The flight was scheduled to leave for San Francisco, which is the place where the praying passenger lives.

His friends told the attendants that he couldn’t stop the prayer, but he should finish in about 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, the man explained that he couldn’t interrupt his praying because it was a religious ritual and he didn’t do that intentionally. But the plane took off without the man after the attendants called a guard to remove him from the plane.

“Even when the doors of the plane are not closed, if the crew says you should take your seat, you have to, so they can proceed with preparing the flight for takeoff,” Ms. Urbanski, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, was quoted by the New York Times as saying. “It’s important that the customers listen to the flight crew’s instructions, especially safety instructions.” She confirmed the man was put on another flight Thursday morning.

On the other hand, it looks like there is a religious rule in the Talmud saying that a man shouldn’t give up to his prayers even if a snake curls around his ankle.