A Black woman claims she was removed from an American Airlines flight after she was accused of being racist by a white passenger.
The passenger, named Erica, shared details of how it all unfolded in a series of TikTok videos posted on December 29.
According to Erica, she and her partner were escorted off a flight from Chicago to Austin, Texas, after the altercation involving the white passenger.
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The couple had boarded the flight, which actually delayed for three hours, and taken their first-class seats when the situation escalated.
“When I got on the flight, I put my backpack under my front seat, and the flight attendant asked me to move my backpack,” Erica said. “I said, ‘That’s fine. I can put it above me if there’s any more space up there.’”
As Erica made the attempt to adjust the bags in the overhead compartment, the man seated next to her reacted angrily.
“He yelled, ‘Do not touch my bag. Do not touch my stuff,’” Erica said. “I said, ‘Okay. I’m sorry. My bad. I could put my bag somewhere else, even though this is right above my seat.’”
A flight attendant offered to help Erica find another spot for her bag, but she says she was concerned about the distance, as she had valuables such as her laptop and iPad in her bag.
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“I don’t know anyone on here, and I have my MacBook, iPads in my backpack,” she said. “First class—I paid over $1,000 for these tickets.”
Right after the flight attendant walked away, Erica said the man began to whisper to his wife before shouting, “I’m threatened. I feel threatened.”
“He yelled at the people that worked on the plane and told them that he felt threatened and that he felt uncomfortable because I did not want my bag to be right above him,” she said.
“He said that it was a ‘race thing,’ and that he felt threatened because he is white and I’m Black and that I mentioned something racist towards him, although I never spoke to him or even said anything out loud other than that I didn’t want my bag to be next to people I didn’t know because I have products in them.”
After the man’s accusations, Erica and her partner were then removed from the flight.
“The flight attendant said, ‘This is a race thing,’” Erica said. “What’s the race problem? Clarify to me because I don’t understand.”
Erica also claimed the flight attendant pushed her while escorting her and her partner off the plane. She then requested that Chicago police be involved, yet was told it was not necessary.
In another TikTok video, Erica captured footage of one of the crew members touching her partner as they were being taken off the plane.
In that video, the crew member is seen smiling and waving while she records the incident.
In another clip, a worker explained that the crew made the decision to remove Erica and her partner from the flight.
Erica also filmed the man who accused her of racism, showing him ignoring her as he raised his hand to block her camera.
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American Airlines is yet to publicly comment on the incident involving the black woman’s altercation on the flight with the white passenger but is currently facing backlash on social media with many deeming Erica’s treatment as unfair.
