Every black passenger on an American Airlines flight was arrested and ejected after a crew member decided they smelled like him, a lawsuit claims.
The eight men, who did not know each other, had boarded Flight 832 at Phoenix Airport in January for the five-hour flight to New York JFK.
They were all in different parts of the plane, but all were singled out and removed after a “white male flight attendant” complained about “offensive body odor” on the plane, the suit alleges.
Staff spent an hour searching for an alternative flight, but when one could not be found, the men were asked to reboard the plane and retake 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 late, hour-long flight,” said Emmanuel Jean Joseph.
Eight black men, traveling separately, were kicked off an American Airlines flight in January after an attendant complained that they “smelled,” 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 removed.
“I started to panic,” he said.
The video shows staff at the gate struggling to find them another flight, with one man labeling the incident as “unprofessional” and another noting, “This is not a random choice.”
A black American Airlines employee at the counter seemed to agree with the claim that their removal was racially motivated, admitting, “I don’t disagree with you.”
The eight men began discussing their removal and three filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
“They had to reboard the plane and endure the stares of the mostly white passengers who saw them as the cause of the significant delay,” the lawsuit alleges.
“They suffered throughout the flight home and the entire incident was traumatic, disturbing, frightening, humiliating and humiliating.”
American Airlines has not yet provided an explanation for why the men were removed from the flight, but stressed in a statement that it “takes all claims of discrimination very seriously.”
The remaining passengers were said to have been informed of the alleged reason for the removal before the eight men were asked to reboard the plane and retake their seats.
One American Airlines employee seemed 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,” she 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 the men’s lawyers are eager to hear the airline’s account of the incident.
“It’s almost unthinkable to think of any other explanation for that than the color of their skin,” says lawyer Sue Huhta.
‘Especially because they didn’t know each other and weren’t near each other.’
The lawsuit cites other recent occasions when passengers have alleged discrimination by the carrier.
It also points to a 2017 travel advisory from the NAACP, in which the civil rights group recommended not flying with the airline for eight months after “multiple instances” of alleged discrimination.
“Someone should have come forward and said, ‘Wait a minute. We cannot do this. This is wrong,” said Michael Kirkpatrick of the Public Citizen Law group
“But instead, no one intervened to prevent this.”
The lawsuit alleges that other passengers were informed that the men had been removed due to their odor while off the plane.
“We’re walking down the aisle of shame, if you will,” Veal said. ‘It was horrible. It was a really traumatic experience.
“Unfortunately, I’m a black man and I live in America.”