- Lawsuit claims that only black passengers were removed after odor complaint
- ‘We were walking through the aisle of shame’ said one. ‘It was horrible.’
Every single black passenger on an American Airlines flight was rounded up and ordered off the aircraft after a crew member decided they smelt, a lawsuit alleges.
The eight men, who did not know each other, had boarded Flight 832 at Phoenix Airport for the five-hour flight to New York JFK in January.
They were all seated in different parts of the plane but all were picked out and hauled off after a ‘white male flight attendant’ made a complaint about ‘offensive body odor’ inside the aircraft, the suit claims.
Staff spent an hour a looking for an alternative flight but, when none could be found, the men were asked to get back on the aircraft and retake their seats.
‘I knew that as soon as I got on that plane, a sea of white faces were going to be looking at me and blaming me for their late flight of an hour,’ said Emmanuel Jean Joseph.
Eight black men, who were traveling separately, were ordered off an American Airlines flight in January after an attendant complained that they ‘smelt’, according to a lawsuit
Three of the men, Alvin Jackson (left), Emmanuel Jean Joseph and Xavier Veal (right) are suing the airline, claiming they were traumatized by the experience
Jean Joseph and fellow passengers Alvin Jackson and Xavier Veal had each taken a connecting flight from Los Angeles before boarding the plane at Phoenix.
Veal decided to record the incident on his phone after noticing that all the black passengers, and none of the white passengers, were being removed.
‘I started freaking out,’ he said.
Video shows staff in the gate area struggling to find them another flight with one man slamming the incident as ‘un-f***ing-professional’, and another remarking that ‘This ain’t no random pick’.
A black American Airlines attendant at the desk appeared to agree with the claim that their removal was racially motivated, admitting: ‘I do not disagree with you.’
The eight men began discussing their removal and three lodged the lawsuit on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
‘They had to re-board the plane and endure the stares of the largely white passengers who viewed them as the cause of the substantial delay,’ the lawsuit claims.
‘They suffered during the entire flight home, and the entire incident was traumatic, upsetting, scary, humiliating, and degrading.’
American Airlines has yet to offer an explanation for why the men were removed from the flight, but insisted in a statement that they ‘take all claims of discrimination very seriously’.
The remaining passengers were allegedly told of the supposed reason for the removal before the eight men were asked to get back on the plane and retake their seats
One American Airlines staffer appeared to agree with the suggestion that the move was racist
‘We want our customers to have a positive experience when they choose to fly with us,’ they added.
‘Our teams are currently investigating the matter, as the claims do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people.’
And lawyers for the men are keen to hear the airline’s account of the incident.
‘It’s almost inconceivable to come up with an explanation for that other than the color of their skin,’ said attorney Sue Huhta.
‘Particularly since they didn’t know each other and weren’t sitting near each other.’
The lawsuit cites other recent occasions that passengers have alleged discrimination by the carrier.
It also references a 2017 travel advisory from the NAACP in which the civil rights organization advised against flying on the airline for eight months after ‘multiple instances’ of alleged discrimination.
‘Somebody should have stepped up and said, ‘Wait a minute. We can’t do this. This is wrong’,’ said Michael Kirkpatrick of the Public Citizen law group
‘But instead, nobody stepped up and intervened to stop it from happening.’
The lawsuit alleges that other passengers were informed that the men were removed because of their smell while they were off the aircraft.
‘We’re walking through the aisle of shame, if you will,’ said Veal. ‘It was horrible. It was a really traumatic experience.
‘Unfortunately, I’m a black man and I live in America.’