American Airlines workers on leave after Black passengers were removed from plane

American Airlines has taken action in response to a January incident where eight Black passengers were ejected from a plane after a White flight attendant made a body odor complaint.

According to The Associated Press, the airline company has since placed an undisclosed number of employees on leave for their roles in what occurred. In a note to staff this week, American CEO Robert Isom labeled what occurred as unacceptable.

“I am incredibly disappointed by what happened on that flight and the breakdown of our procedures,” Isom said in the note. “It contradicts our values. … We fell short of our commitments and failed our customers in this incident.”

As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, three of the eight Black passengers filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against American in the wake of the incident. According to CNN, the lawsuit, which was filed on May 29, alleges that American Airlines committed “blatant and egregious race discrimination” when they made the plaintiffs get off the flight.

The January 5 incident is said to have occurred before American Flight 832 took off from Phoenix to New York City. The plaintiffs, identified as Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph and Xavier Veal, were among the eight Black male passengers who were removed from the plane after a White male flight attendant made the body odor complaint.

The complaint stated that the plaintiffs were not sitting together and did not know each other prior to boarding the plane. The suit further claimed that the plaintiffs were not informed they individually had body odor, “and in fact none of the Plaintiffs had offensive body odor.” 

The suit also alleged that the plaintiffs suggested they were targeted because of their skin color, and at least one American representative agreed with them, per CNN. A video of the incident was also recorded by some of the Black men. 

“So this is discrimination,” one of the men was reportedly heard saying. “I agree, I agree,” a woman appearing to be an airline worker said. “We’re the only ones getting taken off the plane,” a man also said. “Look at us.” A man in a different video was heard saying, “This is crazy. Y’all just took like eight Black people off the plane.”

The men who were removed from the plane were later allowed to reboard after the airline established there were no more flights that evening. “Plaintiffs then had to reboard the plane and endure the stares of the largely white passengers who viewed them as the cause of the substantial delay. They suffered during the entire flight home, and the entire incident was traumatic, upsetting, scary, humiliating, and degrading,” the complaint stated.

The complaint also made mention of a 2017 warning the NAACP issued against American, stating that it was made because of the company’s “pattern of discriminating against Black passengers.” The organization later lifted the warning after the airline made strides in dealing with the issues raised.  

“We are holding those involved accountable, including removing team members from service,” a spokesperson for American said, though the company did not disclose the number of employees placed on leave or their positions, per The Associated Press.

Isom said American is going to establish an advisory group that will specifically look into the experiences of Black passengers, encourage discrimination allegations to be reported, and make diversity training better to “focus on real-world situations to help recognize and address bias and discrimination.”

Isom also said he has discussed the incident with the president of the NAACP.