A few weeks ago, I wrote about how American Airlines is facing yet another lawsuit for discrimination. Admittedly we had only one side of the story at the time, but I couldn’t come up with any innocent explanation whereby the airline wasn’t completely out of line.
There’s now an update, as the airline has apologized for what happened. Let’s go over the basics of the case, and then we’ll look at American’s apology, and how the airline claims it will prevent a similar event in the future.
American removes Black men from plane over body odor
A federal lawsuit has been filed against American Airlines, related to an incident that occurred on a flight from Phoenix (PHX) to New York (JFK) back in January 2024. The lawsuit has been filed by three Black men, and alleges racial discrimination.
According to the lawsuit, shortly after boarding, eight Black men were all asked to get off the aircraft, without initially being given an explanation. The three passengers who filed a lawsuit didn’t know one another, and the only thing they had in common was the color of their skin. For that matter, all Black passengers that they saw were removed from the plane, while no one of any other race was.
Once off the plane, the men were told that one of the flight attendants complained about the body odor of an unidentified passenger, which somehow caused all of these passengers to be removed. There’s even video footage of a man asking the gate agent if he was removed from the plane because of the color of his skin, and she responded “correct.”
The men were initially told that they had to be rebooked on another flight. However, after a significant delay, and the gate agents reportedly not being able to find other flights for the men, they were all told to once again board the same aircraft.
The lawsuit describes the incident as being traumatic, upsetting, scary, humiliating, and degrading. After all, the men had to once again board the same aircraft, where the other passengers viewed them as the cause of the delay.
After the flight, the men had tried to reach out to American for an explanation as to why they were removed from the plane. When the airline refused to clarify, the men decided to sue.
This situation is utterly unacceptable
Frontline airline employees have a lot of power and discretion. I can appreciate how it got to this point, given that the airline industry operates with a “better safe than sorry” philosophy, in order to avoid incidents once an aircraft is airborne. However, it’s also too common for us to see airline employees abuse their power in a way that’s just disgusting.
For example, several weeks ago I wrote about how two Orthodox Jewish passengers were removed from an American flight. They didn’t know one another, and the only thing they had in common was their appearance. The airline apparently intended to remove one of them from the plane (for repeatedly asking a safety question), but the decision was made to kick them both off.
As much as I think the United States is a bit too litigious at times, there needs to be accountability for large corporations, and maybe a lawsuit is what will accomplish that. Suffice it to say that collective punishment based on race or religion is not an acceptable way to do business, and it’s even worse when there’s a pattern of this behavior.
I also can’t wrap my head around the complete lack of common sense applied by frontline employees in these situations. Like, how exactly did this conversation go among employees?
“Hey, we need to remove one of the passengers due to body odor.”
“Okay, which passenger?”
“A Black guy.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know, let’s just remove them all.”
I’m not even trying to joke, because there’s nothing funny about this. But how else could that conversation have gone? How do you get to the point where you’re walking around the cabin just telling all Black people to get off?
And then even when all the men were off the plane and at the gate, did no one go “hmmm, you know, maybe we didn’t really think this one through?”
American CEO apologizes for this incident
In addition to apologizing directly to the passengers, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom has also issued an internal memo talking about the incident, as shared by @xJonNYC. Here’s what Isom says, in part:
It is important we address an unacceptable incident where eight Black passengers were temporarily removed and reboarded on one of our flights.
I am incredibly disappointed by what happened on that flight and the breakdown of our procedures. It contradicts our values, what we stand for, who we are and our purpose of caring for people on life’s journey. We fell short of our commitments and we failed our customers in this incident. As a team, we have committed to listen, learn and grow — and together, build a welcoming culture for our team members and customers. This work is driven by accountability and our leadership attributes — a core tenet of which is caring.
The memo goes on to share the immediate actions that will be taken to address this issue, as well as the long term strategy to strengthen diversity and inclusion at the airline. Here are some of the initiatives:
- American will establish a new oversight and excellence advisory group with a focus on improving the travel experience for Black customers
- American will strengthen oversight and reporting mechanisms, by reviewing internal reporting processes to ensure swift and transparent handling of future incidents and customer concerns related to allegations of discrimination or bias
- American will reevaluate policies, practices, protocols, and organizational culture to identify areas for growth and improvement
- American will enhance annual diversity, equity, and inclusion education series, and launching new training for team members that will move beyond education and focus on real-world situations to help recognize and address bias and discrimination
Bottom line
American is facing a lawsuit, whereby the airline is accused of racial discrimination for kicking eight men off a flight for body odor. The men didn’t know one another, and the only thing they had in common was the color of their skin. Sadly this isn’t even the first time that American is accused of something like this…
American’s CEO has now directly issued an apology over the incident, and talked about steps that will be taken to prevent something like this in the future. It disgusts me that something like this could happen in the future, though I at least appreciate that the carrier has apologized without mincing words.
What do you make of this American situation, and the CEO’s apology?
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