When airline crew tried to use police to remove two Black passengers from a plane over apparently “huffing” at a flight attendant, passengers demanded they be allowed to stay.
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The incident took place on an EasyJet flight from London to Spain. As the plane prepared for take-off, a flight attendant allegedly told the men that they needed to put their shoes back on until the flight was in the air, as they were seated at an emergency exit.
According to fellow passenger Luke Gayle, the men huffed, “sort of like sighing in exasperation,” and then complied with the request.
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But the flight attendant was dissatisfied with their attitudes, and actually had the plane return to the gate and called police to come and escort the men off.
Video taken after the police came on board shows one of the men standing up to remove his luggage and get off the plane, while the flight attendant stands next to his seat. But other passengers immediately started telling him to sit back down — they were on his side.
During that time, the men’s passports were confiscated and their luggage was removed from the plane.
But after several hours of delay, the flight crew was replaced and the plane continued on to Spain, with the men still on board.
According to EasyJet, the flight crew was removed because the delay caused them to hit their maximum working hours rather than due to the passengers’ disagreement of how they were handling the situation.
The company also said that they do “not discriminate against any individual. Safety is our highest priority and there is nothing to suggest that discrimination played any part in the issue onboard.”
However, they have also acknowledged that a number of passengers have complained about the way the situation was handled, from calling the police in the first place to the three-hour delay with no updates as to what was going on.
*First Published: August 12, 2021, 7:05 am
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