(TheRedWire.com) – American Airlines is facing a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in New York by three Black men who claim that the airline had forced them and other Black male passengers to disembark from the plane after a flight attendant, who was white, claimed that they had body odor.
The suit relates to an incident that occurred on Jan. 5 when the three plaintiffs, Xavier Veal, Emmanual Jean Joseph and Alvin Jackson had ended up boarding American Airlines Flight 832 from Phoenix to New York. The three men were not traveling together, were not seated near each other and had not known one another prior ot this incident.
The three men had been traveling to New York from various locations but had a common layover in Phoenix. After the three of them boarded the plane to New York everything appeared to be normal, however only minutes after the pilot announced that they were anticipating that they would arrive early in New York, a representative of American Airlines approached the men one by one and had instructed them that they needed to get off the plane. At the time there was no further information provided as to the reason for their removal.
The incident was recorded and showed that a total of eight Black men had been instructed to get off the plane. The men had been asking the reason for their removal, while also accusing the staff of having discriminated against them. During the accusations, an American Airlines representative can also be heard in the background stating “I Agree.”
After demanding a reason for their removal a representative explained that a white male flight attendant had complained about the body odor of a passenger that he had not identified.
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