Every black passenger on an American Airlines flight was arrested and removed from the plane after a crew member decided they smelled, a lawsuit alleges.
The eight men, who did not know each other, had boarded Flight 832 at the Phoenix airport for a five-hour flight to New York’s JFK in January.
They were all seated in different parts of the plane, but all were picked up and transported after a “white male flight attendant” complained of “unpleasant body odor” inside the plane. plane, according to the suit.
Staff spent an hour looking for another flight but, when they couldn’t find one, the men were asked to get back on the plane and return to their seats.
“I knew that as soon as I got on that plane, a sea of white faces would look at me and blame me for their hour-long flight,” Emmanuel Jean Joseph said.
Eight black men, who were traveling separately, were kicked off an American Airlines flight in January after an attendant complained that they “smelled bad,” 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 in 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 kicked out.
“I started to panic,” he said.
The video shows gate staff struggling to find him another flight, with one man calling the incident “unprofessional”, and another remarking that “it’s not a choice random”.
A black American Airlines employee in the office seemed to agree with the assertion that their firing was racially motivated, admitting, “I don’t disagree with you.”
The eight men began discussing their dismissal, and three of them filed suit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
“They had to reboard the plane and endure stares from the largely white passengers who viewed them as the cause of the significant delay,” the lawsuit claims.
“They suffered throughout the entire flight home, and the entire incident was traumatic, upsetting, frightening, humiliating and degrading.”
American Airlines has not yet explained why the men were removed from the flight, but insisted in a statement that it “takes all allegations of discrimination very seriously.”
The remaining passengers were reportedly informed of the supposed reason for the expulsion before the eight men were asked to re-board the plane and return to their seats.
An American Airlines staffer appears to agree with the suggestion that the move was racist.
“We want our customers to have a positive experience when they choose to travel with us,” they added.
“Our teams are currently investigating the matter as these allegations do not reflect our core values or our mission to care for people.”
And the men’s lawyers are eager to hear the airline’s account of the incident.
“It’s almost inconceivable to find any explanation for this other than the color of their skin,” said attorney Sue Huhta.
“Especially since they didn’t know each other and weren’t sitting next to each other.”
The lawsuit cites other recent occasions when 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 travel on the airline for eight months after “multiple instances” of alleged discrimination.
“Someone should have stepped in and said, ‘Wait a minute.’ We can’t do that. This is false,” said Michael Kirkpatrick of the legal group Public Citizen.
“But instead, no one stepped up and intervened to stop this from happening.”
The lawsuit alleges that other passengers were told the men had been kicked out because of their odor while they were off the plane.
“We’re walking down the aisle of shame, if you will,” Veal said. ‘It was horrible. It was a truly traumatic experience.
“Unfortunately, I am a black man and I live in America.”
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