A British Airways flight attendant fired for filming a racist video in which a colleague mocked Asian passengers by making slanted eyes and putting on a Chinese accent was set up by a colleague who has a long-running vendetta against her, a friend has claimed Today .
Holly Walton and Lauren Bray have both been fired from the airline after the clip appeared on TikTok.
But a source close to Ms Bray, 28, from Crawley, West Sussex, says the clip in which Ms Walton appears to mock Asian passengers is more than two years old and was manipulated by a colleague with whom she has a long relationship. ongoing dispute.
They claimed Ms Bray reported the colleague to Sussex Police – and said they uploaded the video to TikTok and maliciously linked Ms Bray’s name to it.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Ms Bray’s friend said she will appeal her dismissal – and accused BA of making a ‘hasty decision’ without conducting a proper investigation.
Holly Walton appears to make a side-eye gesture as she mocks Asian passengers by putting on a Chinese accent
Ms Walton is said to have shot the video at the luxury Trade Winds hotel in Antigua with colleague Lauren Bray as the pair were between flights.
Lauren Bray told MailOnline exclusively that she will appeal her dismissal – and accused BA of making a ‘hasty decision’ without conducting a proper investigation.
‘The video is fake. It is a fake TikTok account,” said the source close to her. “It’s all false and has nothing to do with Lauren.
‘The fragment and photos that were manipulated are from 2019 and 2022.
‘This is terrible and is not what it seems. It wasn’t put on TikTok by Lauren or Holly. It’s a fake account on TikTok, it’s all manipulated. How? We don’t know, the police are investigating that.
“All I know is that Lauren was involved and it was all put on TikTok and manipulated to make it look like she and Holly were together.
“I have no idea who filmed that video. Lauren and Holly clearly know each other. They both worked for BA and sometimes worked on the same flights.
‘Lauren had been with BA for six years and Holly for ten years.
“If they were racist and troublemakers, they wouldn’t have spent all that time in jail, right?
In the video, Ms. Walton can be seen wearing a blue dress with red-tinted glasses on her head and saying in a cartoonish Chinese accent, “Give me wine.”
She then appears to make gestures with slanting eyes while a bottle of beer is on the table in front of her.
The clip was reportedly filmed from the luxury Trade Winds hotel in Antigua.
The pair had reportedly been cabin crew on the BA2157 flight from Gatwick and were said to have joked around between flights
Outraged colleagues said they mocked a Chinese family on the busy flight who spoke little English.
An Asian-born employee said she was “shaken” by the clip, which has been viewed more than a million times on TikTok.
Another said the women were “deliberately laughing” at the family, which “sends the worst possible message.”
Both Ms Bray and Ms Walton were summoned to a meeting with BA bosses at the airline’s headquarters on Monday, where they were sacked. Mrs Bray apparently left in tears.
The source said: ‘British Airways has logs of who was on those flights and whether there were Asian people on board. If these passengers were so angry and passengers had complained, it was two years ago, why has this come up now? None of it is clear. None of it makes any sense.
The pair were cabin crew on the BA2157 flight from Gatwick and are said to have been between flights when they shot the video at the luxury Trade Winds hotel in Antigua. Pictured: Holly Walton
Ms Walton was ordered to fly back from a return flight in Cancun, Mexico for Monday’s showdown with BA bosses at the airline’s headquarters, The Sun reported, where the pair were fired. Pictured: Holly Walton
The clip was shared widely on TikTok and has been viewed over a million times. Pictured: Holly Walton
“Both Lauren and Holly’s TikTok accounts were private, so anything obtained was hacked.
‘They didn’t put it on TikTok, someone else did that. It has nothing to do with them; they’re not that stupid.
‘This same TikTok account contained Lauren’s personal Facebook details, photos of her, myself, our family and the fact that she lived in Crawley.
“That was all deleted and the police initially treated it as a hate crime against Lauren because of personal information.
“It’s a fake TikTok account with fake bots as all the comments are from fake accounts. It’s the same four people and the likes are bought and generated.
‘BA is well aware of this and is investigating, so if they find out who it is, that person will also be fired.
“It most likely concerns the person who went to the newspaper, a colleague with a complaint.”
The source criticized the British airline’s handling of the matter, adding: ‘Lauren and Holly should have been suspended pending an investigation but BA made a hasty decision because bosses knew it would come out and so they did what they did. they thought they looked good given the circumstances.
‘Both women have appealed and both have had the union sided because the correct procedures were not followed and now we know why – because BA clearly wanted to say ‘we got rid of them both’.
Ms Bray is now looking for work outside the airline industry and has been looking to change careers because of the strain being a flight attendant had on her relationship.
The source added: “Lauren went away with some friends to escape all this.
‘She wanted to stop flying, because being away a lot wasn’t working out with her partner.
‘She never wants to work for BA again, her main aim is to leave the case to the police so they can solve it. She’s going to find another job and move on with her life.
‘If we need legal advice, we will seek legal advice, but we are waiting for that at the moment because the police are close to finding out who leaked all this.’
A BA spokesperson said: ‘All forms of racism are completely unacceptable and we take allegations of this nature very seriously.
“These two people are no longer employed by us.”