The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) fined German airline Lufthansa $4 million for stopping hundreds of Jewish passengers from making a connecting flight, according to a Tuesday DOT press release.

Following alleged misconduct from some passengers, Lufthansa prohibited 128 Jewish passengers from boarding their connecting flight, most of whom were wearing “distinctive garb typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men,” the press release stated. However, many of the passengers were not traveling together and did not know each other, leading the DOT to issue the penalty — the largest the agency has ever issued against an airline for a civil rights violation.

“Most passengers who were interviewed by [the Office of Aviation Consumer Protection] stated that Lufthansa treated them all as if they were a single group, and denied boarding onto [the flight] to everyone for the apparent misbehavior of a few, because they were openly and visibly Jewish,” the DOT’s consent order listing Lufthansa’s violations stated.

DOT Consent Order by owen on Scribd

The incident occurred in May 2022 when passengers were heading from New York City through Frankfurt, Germany, and on to Budapest, Hungary, to attend a memorial event for an Orthodox Rabbi, the Wall Street Journal reported. The DOT received 40 discrimination complaints, and ultimately found Lufthansa’s crew knew “the refusal to transport the entire group could result in the exclusion of passengers that had complied with crew instructions … but concluded it was not practical to address each passenger individually.”

“No one should face discrimination when they travel, and today’s action sends a clear message to the airline industry that we are prepared to investigate and take action whenever passengers’ civil rights are violated,” DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in the release.

Lufthansa and the DOT did not immediately respond to requests for comment.