When first asked to leave the plane, the plaintiffs were “annoyed and frustrated at being bumped” and would likely return home late, attorney Michael Kirkpatrick said. Then they realized that all the booted passengers were black men.
“It hit them like a ton of bricks,” Kirkpatrick said.
American Airlines said in a statement Wednesday morning that it takes the discrimination allegations “very seriously.”
“Our teams are currently investigating this matter because these allegations do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people,” the statement said.
Videos of the incident, taken by some of the men, show disbelieving passengers on the boarding ramp as they express shock, demand explanations and tell employees their treatment amounts to discrimination.
“I agree. I agree,” replies a woman wearing a lanyard and badge.
“You just took about eight black people off the plane,” one man said. “What?”
American eventually allowed the passengers back on the plane and continued to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The plaintiffs — Xavier Veal, production assistant; Emmanuel Jean Joseph, actor; and Alvin Jackson, a musician and music teacher – all live in New York and had booked a flight home from Burbank, Calif., with a layover and change of planes in Phoenix. They did not know each other before the flight, were not seated together and did not see the other five men again.
The lawsuit claims the airline's decision to deport the men was not based on any “legitimate justification.” An airline employee ordered the men off the plane one by one without explanation, according to the lawsuit.
It “is almost impossible to imagine that any American would ever treat white customers in the same manner,” the lawsuit states.
The complaint about body odor came from a white flight attendant, according to the complaint. The lawsuit says none of the men suing the airline had unpleasant body odor and none were directly accused of an offense.
Airlines mention body odor in their transport contracts this list of reasons why passengers may be denied boarding. In the case of American, it states that passengers should “ensure that your odor is not offensive (unless caused by disability or illness). Veal called the airline's reasoning for firing him and his fellow passengers “ridiculous.”
A woman who was on the plane said that as the men were getting off the plane, the remaining passengers heard an announcement that a body odor issue was being resolved, according to Kirkpatrick, the attorney. of the Public Citizen Litigation Group. American was unable to find alternative flights for the men and, after about an hour, let them fly back, according to the lawsuit.
“We're walking down the aisle of shame, if you will,” Veal, 36, told The Post in an interview. “It was horrible. It was a really traumatic experience.
Veal said there was “visible tension” on the plane when they reboarded. Later, at the baggage carousel, he said, some passengers said what happened to the men was terrible. Veal, who lives in Queens, connected with Joseph and Jackson during baggage claim, and the three decided to take legal action against the airline.
Veal said he has faced racism in his life, but this is a new scenario.
“Unfortunately, I’m a black man and I live in America,” he said. “It brings you back to reality that I can’t just go to the store; I can't just do ordinary things like fly home.
American Airlines was criticized in 2017 for its treatment of black passengers, including removing people from flights, which sparked a recommendations for travelers of the NAACP. The group lifted the warning the next year.
Although American allowed the men in January to get back on the plane and return home, the experience was “traumatic, upsetting, frightening, humiliating and degrading,” the lawsuit says.
“None of the white passengers were taken off the plane and humiliated and embarrassed,” Kirkpatrick said.
The suit seeks an unspecified amount of compensation and punitive damages. Kirkpatrick said the plaintiffs also want the airline to reform its practices to prevent such an incident from happening to anyone else.
“Someone should have stepped up and said, ‘Wait a minute. We can't do that. That’s not true,” Kirkpatrick said. “But instead, no one stepped up and intervened to stop this from happening.”
