Civil Case (N) 4843-03-20 Aviram Becker v. El Caspi Case – Supreme Court Israel Airlines Ltd. - part 36

In his affidavit, he stated that in his routine work, he regularly handles delays and flight cancellations, to the extent that they occur, and that they provide passengers with all the relevant information and the required assistance, and that he usually fills out the detailed report above in real time and sends it at the end of the shift in order to document everything that happened in relation to the flight delay, and that "this is a customary and routine action and in any case of flight delay or cancellation, I am required to fill out such a delay report", meaning that we are dealing with an institutional record that is prepared by El Al in the course of its regular activity, and it customarily during its regular management to make a record of the event that is the subject of the record close to its occurrence, and this attests to the veracity of the content of the record.  In this context, he stated at the end of his affidavit that all reports or reports attached as appendices are reports that were written and sent in real time, and that these reports and reports were "pulled out as an output from the defendant's systems, which record in real time the delay times" on the defendant's flights and describe the events.  In his affidavit, he stated that before the passengers were dropped off back to the terminal, the flight crew served them a hot meal on the plane since the cafes and restaurants in the passenger terminal were closed late at night.  After the passengers were disembarked, they began to disperse the flight passenger to hotels.  He described that they did everything they could to book "as many hotel rooms as possible in the shortest possible time, but the process of locating and booking available rooms in the hotels, in sufficient quantities for all passengers on the flight, late at night took a long time.  Therefore, since the process of locating and booking hotels took a long time, I contacted the passengers and informed them that if any of them did not want to wait until they were booked a hotel room and could book a hotel room for themselves independently of their choice, El Al would reimburse them in the amount of up to $250 per night per room, depending on the cost range of mid-tier hotel rooms (the duration of the stay required to pay was two nights).  I would like to emphasize that I have explained and made it clear to the passengers that anyone who is interested in finding a hotel for himself, may do so and EL AL will also compensate him for all their direct expenses, such as travel expenses, food and drink, etc., in exchange for the presentation of supporting receipts" (paragraphs 13.2-13.5 of the affidavit).  He stressed that they explained to all the passengers what they were entitled to receive from El Al "and gave them the option of waiting at the airport and receiving it through us or receiving it retroactively, through appropriate indemnity." He added , "Of course, as we do with any delay of more than 5 hours or the cancellation of a flight, it was explained to the passengers that they could cancel their flight tickets and contact El Al in writing in order to get their money back, and they were allowed to do so (this offer was not relevant to passengers who had to return to Tel Aviv, but they were entitled to it, and it was explained in general that they could, of course, do so)." I will already note in this context that none of the plaintiffs confirmed this, this is not anchored in the attached report nor in the summary of the incident in Hebrew, and the defendant herself did not claim this, including in her summaries after not only did she already know what the allegations against her were, but also the plaintiffs were interrogated and did not try to refute this, but claimed that there was prima facie irrelevance where they boarded the flight she operated as an alternative to the original flight.  We'll come back to that.  In any case, he addressed the issue of transportation in terms of what is customary by them - transportation by taxis or buses, and anyone who leaves the airport without using the transportation services that El Al offers at its expense is entitled to receive a refund in exchange for presenting an appropriate receipt.  He clarified that the reports indicate that the passengers received transportation services at El Al's expense by buses that took them to the hotels or by taxis that took them to the place they chose to stay, including back to the airport.  He noted that at the airport in New York, it is not possible to place signs or notices regarding the airport's procedures, and therefore the required information is with the station's representatives (which also emerged from the testimonies that an El Al counter had been opened).