Pair arrested after scuffle at Delta Air Lines gate hires lawyer to fight charges
The Brooklyn duo who were arrested at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Tuesday morning after a dispute at a Delta Air Lines gate have hired an attorney, contending Delta employees were to blame for the rapidly escalating situation.
Ida Shafir and Nick Bogomolsky were scheduled to board a Tuesday morning Delta Air Lines flight at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to New York when staffers told them they had to check their luggage because the plane was full.
The pair refused, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said. Instead, they caused a disturbance and injured BSO deputies, according to their arrest reports.
Shafir, 67, was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest with violence and trespassing. Bogomolsky, 61, was charged with robbery, resisting arrest with violence, trespassing after warning and obstructing police.
On Thursday, Petro Zinkovetsky, the lawyer retained by the couple’s families, said in a letter the allegations were “completely baseless” and that “Delta acted recklessly and with complete disregard to its customers’ safety.”
“Contrary to the picture painted in the media, the victims had complied with Delta employees’ request to check in their carry-on bags,” he wrote. “It is unclear why Delta employees state that the victims refused to check their bags even though they themselves took the bags from the victims and issued the receipts. We believe and intend to prove that it was Delta employees’ lack of respect for their customers, poor training and incompetence that escalated the situation.”
He said the two were “law-abiding senior citizens that have no prior arrests or altercation with the law.”
Delta issued the following statement on Thursday evening: “Delta is working with law enforcement regarding an incident involving two disruptive passengers in the gate area prior to boarding at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.”
According to news reports, Shafir and Bogomolsky, who live in Brooklyn, were passengers on the 7:25 a.m. Delta Flight 891 to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
At 7:17 a.m., two Delta staffers were “in the process of boarding the airplane” when they told passengers they would have to check carry-on luggage at the gate because it was a full flight, a deputy wrote in the report.
“Ida got upset, and refused to check their luggage causing a delay in boarding the plane,” a deputy wrote. “Ida was causing a commotion at the gate.”
The pair was escorted to the jet bridge, BSO said, where the manager was called. The manager then told them if they didn’t check their bags, they would not be allowed on the plane, according to the report.
Part of the problem, a deputy said in the report: Bogomolsky had three bags, more than allowed.
The manager told them they would not be allowed to board and needed to leave. They refused, BSO said.
Delta staffers then called BSO for help. The first deputy to arrive tried to “de-escalate the situation,” but the pair continued to refuse to leave, according to the report. A second deputy arrived and “explained to Ida that she needed to leave or she was going to be placed under arrest,” a deputy wrote in the report.
Shafir told the deputy to arrest her, BSO said. But when the officer tried to handcuff her, “Ida got out of control and resisted arrest by tensing, bracing and pulling her hands away from him,” the deputy said.
Both of them fell to the ground, according to the report. Shafir then bit the deputy’s left arm, causing it to bleed, BSO said.
Meanwhile, BSO said Bogomolsky pushed the other deputy out of the way and attempted to grab the firearm from the deputy on the ground. After a scuffle with Bogomolsky that ended with the other deputy on the ground as well, both were taken into custody.
Both deputies were taken to a hospital to be treated — one for the bite and the other for an injured knee.
Shafir was also taken to the hospital emergency room, according to Zinkovetsky. He didn’t say at what hospital she was treated, nor did he indicate her injuries.
This story was originally published February 26, 2019 at 9:03 PM.
