The charges stem from an incident in May 2022, in which 131 passengers planned to fly from New York City to Budapest — with a connection in Frankfurt — for an annual memorial event for an Orthodox rabbi. Most wore the distinctive black hats and jackets typically favored by Orthodox Jewish men, the DOT says.

“Despite the 131 passengers having a common destination, most of the passengers did not know each other and did not book their flights as a single group,” according to the department’s consent order.

Yet the DOT says Lufthansa treated the Jewish passengers as one entity, and barred 128 of them from boarding their connecting flight due to the alleged misconduct of a few.