Having never seen one before, that if I was on a public transport of some sort and I had seen a guy wearing one of those, I’d probably freak a bit too.
Never take an airplane flight to Israel. Toward morning each male Hasidic Jew gets up, prepares for prayer by donning their Phylacteries and their prayer tallit, and they gather in the bulkhead space near the mid-plane bathrooms facing toward Jerusalem and they pray.