Ryanair passenger in racist rant at Windrush woman ... but staff let him stay on jet
RYANAIR refused to kick a passenger off a plane after he launched a torrent of racist abuse at a black pensioner sitting two seats away from him.
The man was filmed unleashing a foul-mouthed tirade against the Windrush immigrant, 77, on a flight from Barcelona to Stansted last Friday.
The unidentified middle-aged man wearing glasses called the woman a ‘ black b*****d and ‘ugly f*****g ****’ while threatening to push her off the row they were on.
The budget airline’s staff initially watched the argument unfold without intervening as the plane prepared to take off. Eventually a flight attendant told the man: ‘Don’t be so rude – you have to calm down.’
The terrified pensioner – named only as Mrs Gayle – ended up asking stewards to move her to a different seat after believing they ‘pandered to the needs’ of the man rather than hers. The incident, which is being probed by UK police, sparked a huge backlash yesterday, with Labour MP David Lammy likening the victim’s ordeal to that of American civil rights campaigner Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus in the 1950s. The victim’s family last night claimed that Ryanair staff insisted they heard no racist language while brushing off their complaints.
The clash unfolded on Ryanair flight FR015 from Barcelona to Stansted as Mrs Gayle returned from a holiday with her daughter. Mrs Gayle, who moved to the UK from Jamaica in the 1960s, was taken on the trip to lift her spirits as the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death approached. She told ITV last night: ‘I am so depressed. I’ve just lost my husband and now I have to go through this.’
Her daughter, who asked not to be named, said that the tirade began when the man complained that her mother was taking too long to move from her aisle seat as he tried to get to the window seat. The daughter angrily asked him to have patience because her arthritis- suffering mother was disabled. The man replied: ‘I don’t care whether she’s f*****g disabled or not – if I tell her to get out, she gets out.’
He also called Mrs Gayle ‘an ugly f*****g ****’ and told staff to move her to another seat. When Mrs Gayle addressed him in a Jamaican accent, he hit back: ‘Don’t talk to me in a f*****g foreign language, you stupid, ugly cow.’
As cabin crew did little to stop the row, a passenger in the row behind told the man to stop and put his hands between him and Mrs Gayle. But the racist responded: ‘I will carry on as long as I can with this black b*****d.’ At one stage, Mrs Gayle told the man he stank and needed a wash. The man threatened: ‘If you don’t go to another seat, I’ll push you to another seat.’
She finally asked to be moved to another section of the plane.
The victim’s daughter, 53, last night said that the family would never fly with Ryanair again and claimed the incident would have been handled differently if the abuser had been black. She also accused the airline of ‘pandering’ to the man.
She told the Huffington Post: ‘My mother has worked her all of her life, paid her taxes and her dues. Why should she have to go through all of this?
‘Mum’s really feeling upset and very stressed about this situation. I’m upset about the whole thing too – the fact that the passenger wasn’t taken off the plane and how the situation was dealt with. We will never fly with Ryanair again.’
Mrs Gayle told the Mail last night: ‘I’m too depressed to talk. They get away with it because we’re black.’
Passenger David Lawrence, whose video of the row has been viewed almost three million times, said: ‘He should have been ejected off the flight but instead he started to suggest that the woman move.
‘They [Ryanair] took too long to respond to this. The film was posted for two days and it is only now that they are responding, which is absolutely unacceptable. It was so unprofessional.’
Mr Lammy said: ‘ Boycott Ryanair – if they think it’s OK for a racist man to abuse an elderly black woman and remain on the plane.
‘It’s 63 years since Rosa Parks said “No” to sitting in the back of the bus and we ain’t going back.’
Labour’s shadow attorney general Karl Turner wrote online: ‘ Clearly committed criminal offences. Needs to be charged and fast.’
Ryanair said: ‘As this is now a police matter, we cannot comment further.’ Essex Police said: ‘We are working closely with Ryanair and the Spanish authorities on the investigation.’
‘This is like Rosa Parks in the 1950s’