American Airlines suspends staff after passengers filed a lawsuit against carrier
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Several American Airlines employees have been suspended for their involvement in the removal of three black passengers from a flight between Phoenix and Yew York on 5 January after a complaint about body odour.
The three passengers filed a lawsuit against the carrier in May, alleging racial discrimination.
The BBC reports that in a note to employees, CEO Robert Isom said that the incident was unacceptable and that the company “fell short” of its commitment to customers.
“We are holding those involved accountable, including removing team members from service,” American Airlines said in a statement.
The company has also announced a number of initiatives aimed at preventing such incidents from taking place, including an “advisory group” focused on the experience of black passengers.
In the May lawsuit, the three men – who were not seated together and did not know each other – said that every black man was removed from the flight.
A total of eight passengers were removed.
“American Airlines singled us out for being black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us,” they said in a statement.
The three men – Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph, and Xavier Veal – were eventually allowed to re-take their seats on their original flight.
In a letter to employees dated 18 June, Mr Isom said he was “incredibly disappointed by what happened on the flight and the breakdown of our procedures. We fell short of our commitments and failed our customers.”
Isom added that the airline is “steadfast in our commitment” to working with civil rights organisations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, to “rebuild trust”.
The incident is not the first time that American Airlines has faced allegations of discrimination.
In a separate incident in 2017, the NAACP warned black travellers to avoid the airline, citing a pattern of “disrespectful” and “discriminatory” behaviour as well as a “corporate culture of racial insensitivity and possible racial bias”.
They lifted the advisory the following year after the carrier announced it had made changes to its operations.
On 4 June this year, however, the NAACP warned that it could reinstate the warning unless American Airlines gave a “swift and decisive response” to the January incident.
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