A viral video captures a surprising scene on a recent British Airways flight: passengers turning part of a long journey into an improvised church service, singing and allegedly preaching for three hours. It’s not every day you hear an airborne version of a street evangelist at 35,000 feet, but that’s exactly what unfolded aboard a British Airways service from London to Jamaica.
Passengers Turn British Airways Flight Into Three-Hour Airborne Church Service
According to posts circulating on social platforms, the flight, a 10-hour journey form London (LGW) to Kingston, Jamaica (KIN) saw a group of travelers engage in sustained singing, chanting, and religious expression after pushback from the gate. While the context and whether the activity was spontaneous worship, a planned group event, or passenger-led entertainment varies between accounts, the video clips suggest an extended period of collective religious expression that lasted a significant portion of the flight. This video was apparently shot in 2020, but has gone viral this week after resurfacing on TikTok. Here’s five minutes of it:
@maxmilliok British airways flight turns into a church service #britishairways #flights #preaching #church#jamaica #jamiacantiktok
I find it very hard to believe that this went on for three hours, through. If you watch the video above, I bet it went on for just a few minutes, not a few hours…there’s no way such a disturbance on a transatlantic flight would be permitted to go on for so long (at least I hope not!).
While most reactions are negative, there are defenders. Some commenters express appreciation for what they see as a communal and uplifting experience. But most (properly) find it intrusive or inappropriate for a cabin filled with a diverse set of travelers, some of whom are simply trying to sleep, work, or rest. Airline cabins are not the Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park.
I’m sure these folks meant very well, but it is totally unacceptable, full stop, end of discussion.
I am a Christian (not of the pentecostal or charismatic flavor) and believe the truth revealed in Scripture is life-saving and life-transforming. But, an airplane–with hundreds of folks trapped in a metal tube–is not the time or place to evangelize.
CONCLUSION
While I recognize that Jesus Himself said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation,” there is deep biblical truth that this cannot be forced, whether by law, fiat, or even by holding an audience captive on airplane.
It’s rude, boorish, and always unacceptable to disturb others on a flight. I can’t imagine that was easy for the crew to handle, but such theatrics have no place on airplanes.
No. Please do not normalize this, or any ‘performances’ by passengers (or crew) on commercial flights. You can have your strongly-held beliefs, but this is not the place for evangelizing or forcing interactions on others, if anywhere.
Sounds like a Ryan Air flight to Ibiza if you don’t listen to the words they’re saying
“While I recognize that Jesus Himself said, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation,’ there is deep biblical truth that this cannot be forced, whether by law, fiat, or even by holding an audience captive on an airplane.” Exactly, Matthew. As a Christian myself, our call is to “spread seeds” and tell others, not forcing them like the Spanish Conquistadors. Only by God’s will will someone come to faith.
You are a member of a CULT based around a way in the past for rich people to control poor people.
Guess you are dense
So ironic…
Well, if that’s your opinion, I’m sorry. There are people who claim they are Christians but do not think or act Christ-like. I believe that we are all equal; no rich man is better than a poor man. Matthew 19:23-24 (ESV) says, “And Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.'” What rich man, in their right mind, would say this? Christianity is not a way to gain power; in fact, it is to relinquish what we have to God. But again, if that is your opinion, I will respect it.
I don’t care what religion anybody is but prosletising is both arrogant and abhorrent in the extreme.
I’m very religious and a Christian.
But this is almost as bad as that time Southwest put a ukulele on every seat on a plane to Hawaii.
I’d pull the emergency exit in seconds.
But you think your aviation blog is a place for you to preach and for you to block people who do not agree with you?
By the way what Israel did in Gaza and the West Bank is a massacre which you think is bull shit.
Check out his headline “Israel’s leading Haaretz newspaper reported that the military had accepted the Gaza health ministry’s estimate that around 71,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its onslaught in October 2023.”
Again and again like Trump you can only see the world through your narcissistic eyes.
Yes, because no one is forced to read my blog, unlike folks subjected to preaching against their will on an airplane.
Here’s the sad truth in Gaza: war has consequences and the blood of every dead Palestinian in Gaza is on the hands of Hamas. Israel has a right to defend itself and when women and children are used as human shields, it is not the Israelis you should be condemning!
I don’t know, man. To what end? When children were killed in Warsaw after the Ghetto Uprising, would you have said their parents had blood on their hands? It was a direct result of their action. If Renee Good would have just stayed home, I guess she’d be alive. I think your point might have held a bit more water 2 years ago than it does now.
Come on, Jerry. Renee Good was not launching rockets at ICE agents, neither was anyone else in MSP.
She was probably a false equivalency.
Well said. “Israel has a right to defend itself” seems to be the template response for those who refuse to (or simply ignorantly/naively cannot) see that what the Israeli government has done goes far beyond self defence.
Based and correct takes all around
SATAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 666.
No. Just no. If the flight attendants allowed this for three hours, I would be demanding some form of compensation.
If I had this nonsense inflicted on me at all, I’d want a full refund and compensation from the airline. There is no place at all for others to inflict their religious nonsense on people who are wiser than to believe it.
Are they really wise, to not believe? And I’m not saying that this was the right place for it.
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others… But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen
This.
Amen
You had it correct in the beginning- ” a disturbance, not a church service”
@Matthew, I’m confused by the heading, since it doesn’t quite match your post. It suggests that the flight was a nightmare that was made better by the church service. I think a better title would’ve been: “Passengers Turn British Airways Flight Into “Nightmare” Three-Hour “Church Service” At 35,000 Feet”
Yep, that would have been a better headline.
This is absolutely unacceptable behaviour. The arrogance of these people…
I long for a return to the days when religious belief was a private matter, shared between family members and fellow believers.
I don’t go that far (though I am huge proponent of separation between church and state), but we can certainly agree that this was unacceptable.
If you fly El Al to Israel, there is always at least one, sometimes several prayer services going on in the back of the plane. They don’t last long, but they take place in order to fulfill the obligation to pray 3 times a day.
As long as it would be fine for a Muslim or Satanist group to do the same, I’m good with it. Otherwise, religion is strictly between an individual, their spiritual advisor, and their deity/deities.
Don’t preach your religious beliefs to me. EVER.
How absurd.
Evolution is real. Gods don’t exist.
No need to push that nonsense on others, who believe in science, not imaginary beings.
You think evolution proves God doesn’t exist?
After the 150-minute British Airways in-flight worship service, did the plane land in Jamaica or was it just raptured straight to paradise? Upon landing, did all the wheelchair passengers leap up, toss their crutches and wheelchairs aside, and conga-line off the plane—maybe even moonwalking past customs? And if the flight attendants allow the use of the PA, does the flight deck get a discount on salvation, or do they just request hymns as in-flight entertainment?