An Israeli conman wanted by law enforcement in Israel, who was being deported from the United States, allegedly faked a heart attack on a flight from New York JFK to Tel Aviv in a desperate bid to avoid justice, it has been reported.
Elazar Wigdorowitz had apparently been caught by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) trying to enter the United States from Canada illegally and was being returned to his home country of Israel after pleading guilty to improper entry.
Wigdorowitz was booked on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York JFK to Tel Aviv on February 2, but as the Airbus A330 was flying over Ireland on its way to Israel, Wigdorowitz allegedly faked a mile-high heart attack.
The flight crew declared a medical emergency and immediately diverted off its route to land in Dublin, where paramedics were waiting to meet the aircraft.
It’s alleged that Wigdorowitz was desperate to avoid landing back in Israel, where he is wanted on a slew of charges, including conspiracy to defraud, forgery with intent, use of a forged document, fabricating evidence, and obstruction of evidence.
Unfortunately for Wigdorowitz, Ireland’s national police force, the Gardai, were aware of his criminal history through an Interpol Red Notice, and Gardai officers were quickly dispatched to the hospital in Dublin where he was taken.
As a member of the European Union, Ireland has an extradition treaty with Israel, so law enforcement will be able to act on the Interpol Red Notice to have Wigdorowitz returned to Israel.
Unfortunately for Delta, this would have been a very expensive diversion through no fault of its own, setting the airline back as much as $150,000.
There is a lot of commentary online about why Wigdorowitz was being returned to Israel on a regular commercial flight unsupervised, although it’s worth mentioning that this is common practice.
While some flight attendant and pilot unions are deeply opposed to carrying deportees on regular passenger flights, airlines are often legally obliged to accept deportees, whether they want to or not.
In many cases, when the deportee willingly accepts traveling back to their country of origin, there is no need to have them accompanied by a security escort. Of course, that works on the assumption that they aren’t going to fake a medical incident at some point in the flight.
