A black woman says she was kicked off of a Chicago – Austin flight on American Airlines because a white man felt threatened with her traveling in first class.
She says she was physically pushed off her flight and that a flight attendant declares “this is a race thing.” Her partner was removed from the flight as well.
Here you can see her being removed from the aircraft. She asks for police, because she doesn’t understand what she’s done to get kicked off. You can see a flight attendant waving ‘bye bye’ at her as she leaves the plane and is walked up the jet bridge.
@lovergirlmagic
She filmed some of the interaction onboard as she’s being taken off. She films the man she says complained about her being the only black passenger in first class. The airline agent removing her tells her that it’s the decision of the crew, and not something they can discuss with her.
@lovergirlmagic Replying to @Michael
When she boarded the flight, she says, there wasn’t any overhead bin space above her first class seat. She apparently went to shift bags around in the bin above her seat to fit her carry-on, and the passenger in front of her ‘got up and yelled’ at her not to touch his bag.
She says she apologized, and talked with the flight attendant about where her bag might go – she didn’t want her MacBook and iPad too far from her. That’s when the man in front of her declares he felt threatened and uncomfortable with her, that “it was a race thing” and that she “mentioned something racist towards him” which she denies.
@lovergirlmagic
An American Airlines spokesperson offers,
We take all allegations of discrimination seriously and our team is working to get in touch with this customer to learn more about her experience.
After eight black men – traveling separately, and who did not know each other – were kicked off an American Airlines flight after a body odor complaint, the airline imposed new rules for crew removing passengers for things like odor, attire, and attitude. The flight attendants involved in the incident were fired. This held off the reinstatement of a travel warning against American by the NAACP.
There are over 130,000 employees of American Airlines. With any company that size there will be a few who create bad experiences, and there will be misunderstandings, as well. That’s true of other airlines and in other industries, too. There isn’t always consistency across behavior and service standards at the airline. In that context, some prejudices and miscommunications may come out more.
American Airlines leadership certainly doesn’t do anything I can see to encourage racism amongst its employees, or even to tolerate it, though airline leadership is hardly diverse at the Texas-based carrier. There were several incidents in the past where American was unfairly criticized (including ones which formed the basis for the NAACP’s previous travel warning).
And yet these incidents do come up, which makes me wonder whether they say more about continuing issues of race in society than about the airline itself. At the same time, these issues seem to come up more frequently with American – but American operates more flights and carriers more passengers than other airlines, too.
Here it seems like an issue that combines other passengers who instigated a problem, along with crew who sided with those passengers. We have only one side of the story. The flight attendant who can be seen waving ‘bye bye’ to the woman as she’s removed from the aircraft suggests something happened to really get under that crewmember’s skin, and we do not know what it was (though the bye bye wave also seemed not appropriate, no matter what it was).
Oh, goodie, a literal race/class war. As we embark upon yet another American genocide very soon, this should not be surprising. The ‘mass deportations’ crowd is gonna love this. Now, where’s @Mantis @George and the others when you need a good laugh. Bring it!
@1990
I wish you were banned here. Your comments are nothing but bigotry and pot stirring because you are still bitter you were born gay.
It is a shame that things such as this still happen. Why can’t people just get along?
Sorry but there has to be more going on here. Sure someone may get up if their items are being moved but I have never seen someone in first class (especially) that isn’t reasonable about storing items and if a FA is involved in moving them that should have resolved the matter. Also, I can’t imagine any passenger getting someone kicked off because “she was the only Black person in first class and they felt threatened”. Then you have a FA waving bye bye which tells me there was a lot more drama going on (likely caused by the woman taken off the plane) than was reported.
You posted one side of this and then went on a rant about racist behavior at AA. Shame on you. Sure the guy may have been upset and unreasonable but I have a gut feeling this was escalated by the woman or she said a lot more than she indicated which was viewed as a threat.
Maybe she can hire Ben Crump and get a payout! SMH
@AndyS
Oof. Pot calling the kettle black. Nice.
At least my comments actually refer to the topic at hand, which is an incident involving race and class (of service) on an aircraft. You know, aviation, the subject matter of Gary’s blog.
No, you sir, like some others who comment here quite often, traffic in ad hominem attacks, alone. I enjoyed receiving you. Feed me more, my liege.
100% didn’t happen the way she said it did. Never does. The race cards have all been dealt out. Next game please.
1990
Give it up my friend, you can only play note and not a very good one at that.
Genocide? Please.
There’s something missing here. Flight attendants just don’t willy nilly throw people off the plane.
There is NFW that someone cited that she was the only black person in first class. The claim automatically discredits her story. Plus I’m sure about 90% of the rest of the incident was left out of her story.
@Jay Gee
Oh, you got me, the good ole straw-man. Sure, fine, no genocide yet, but if we continue to dehumanize each other in the ways you-know-who and his folks have, it becomes more likely. Calling our fellow citizens ‘vermin’ and ‘the enemy from within’ is not too far from the Rwandans calling the other tribe ‘cockroaches’ so let’s wait and see how this all ends up. Maybe it’ll just be classic tax cuts and deregulation.
And as for ‘giving it up’ —no thanks. I appreciate the actual ‘free speech absolutism’ I’ve witnessed here. A little while back a commenter on a separate post used the n-word with a hard ‘r’ and nothing was removed or banned. So, sorry, but I am tame by comparison.
David is absolutely correct on this one.
After all the fake race hoaxes recently, gonna need more evidence for this one, sorry.
It’s obvious none of you were there, so provide some proof that this didn’t happen.
I’ve started skipping any comment from 1990 (would delete if I could) as he/she is a one pony act.
Now as to the claim, the old couple obviously didn’t get the memo that racism can only be claimed the a majority minority . . . not white or perceived white folks.
Only the most insufferable, naive and low IQ leftist like 1990 would take this woman’s story at face value, because of course a black woman acting terribly in public then playing the race card could never actually happen, right? There’s obviously much more to this story, Gary, I can’t believe you would post such unsubstantiated accusations without any evidence.
Hey 1990, If I’m wrong I’ll never comment here again, and you the same. Deal?
What took you guys so long?!
@One Trippe Nice pronouns!
@Mantis No dice. I live for the thrills of such harmless banter. Anyone left of conservative is an automatic Marxist, Leninist, Maoist, ist-ist. Just sayin’ you can do better. I need a little more.
For a pleasurable flight, choose Delta.
@1990
You need more? What you need is a lobotomy. OK I’m with the others. Ignoring you going forward because reading your post kills brain cells. Have a nice life, and enjoy the next 4 years of ever escalating TDS.
Just curious, why do people with Apple products always have to say exactly what they are instead of a general term, e.g. has to say iPhone instead of phone or cell phone or say iPad instead of tablet or AirPods instead of ear buds? Or are us non-Apple people supposed to be impressed by that?
@Mantis You do you, mister. Ignore me, don’t, whatever. See you next time.
Let the ‘discourse’ in these comments show that Gary’s conclusion (in the original post) holds true: There very much are “continuing issues of race in society” and it shows. Y’all work’d up!
Video’ing parts of it … not the first thing a reasonable person would do while they’re busy collecting their carry-ons, asking for their coats, etc., so they can get off the plane. AA has set recent precedent that they’re now overly sensitive, e.g., gangs that dropped eggs in groceries so another could ‘slip and fall.’
It’s getting to the point where as a passenger you’ll need to wear a bodycam when you fly so 100% of your interactions are protected and evidence based.
@Mantis
how about another half a dozen posts responding to 1990 and explaining how you’re going to ignore him going forward?
What is a “body over complaint?”
For crying out loud: hire a copy editor if you wish to call yerselves “journalists!”
The flight attendant waving at the camera is unprofessional and shouldn’t be working with people. Not a wise way to diffuse a tense situation onboard by giving a snarky wave.
Funny to read all the bigots’ comments. I’m so glad Trump won so he can fuqq their lives up, and have them drinking bleach and dying over the next pandemic. Goofy bigots.
I’m confused. Didn’t AA come out with a statement they will not remove passengers from a flight and the FA’s involved need to work it out. And if they can’t, then the Pilot is involved and needs to work with a CRO (complaint resolution officer)? I don’t remember all the details, but I didn’t think AA could just kick people off anymore.
AA appears to have kicked off an entitled, self-important race baiter.
“It’s obvious none of you were there, so provide some proof that this didn’t happen.” Wouldn’t the burden of proof be the other way around? Clearly, none of witnessed this. I can’t prove someone wasn’t probed by aliens. But, I’ve yet to believe such a claimant. I’m certain acts of racial injustice occur, but how do I know if this was one? Her story doesn’t fully add up (an FA admits it’sabout race?). It could be true and would be despicable if it is, but we are hearing one side of it. A police officer once said that, when you respond to a bar fight, the other guy started it 99% of the time.
I am afraid of most people on American Airlines flights. What trash!
@Bob – they wouldn’t remove passengers for non-safety/security reasons prompted by flight attendant opinion… here it’s a prompt by the customer
I think it was because she was a woman. That’s why they kicked her off the plane…
NEVER HAPPENED !! FULL STOP !
American airlines recently had to pay a lot of money for a lawsuit involving eight black passengers. A lawsuit over a very similar situation. So for those of you claiming this didn’t happen, or couldn’t happen, it has happened. So instead of making assumptions with bigoted intentions, do your research.
@Jonathan L Williams I know that people have faked their death. I also never believe an Elvis sighting. Just because an event happened once, it still doesn’t give credibility to other accusations. The bigoted intentions here are far more likely with the passenger than posters.Maybe you should research the accuracy of “victims” side of stories.