To think this racist should have been kicked off this RyanAir flight?

[WickedGoodDoge]

I’m not going to repeat the language this passenger used here, but basically he refused to sit next to a black passenger resulting in her being moved and staff asking the man if he was OK once she was moved.

RyanAir have released a terse statement saying it’s been referred to Essex Police

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/daughter-of-ryanair-racist-abuse-victim-speaks-out-following-on-flight-attack_uk_5bcb4379e4b055bc94811e92/

I doubt the Ryanair, the company, knew anything about this until the video went viral.

I agree that a more measured approach can sometimes be the most appropriate course of action.

I doubt the lady concerned would have felt any consolation from having her journey home delayed by however long.
She has been spoken to in a vile manner and who sits where will not un- do that for her.

Furthermore, delaying the flight for the remaining 80 -90 odd other passengers on board, was unlikely to make the flight more pleasant for anyone.

Awful situation. The man is an absolutely vile pig.

I think other passengers did step in though. Someone is videoing, others voices are in the background, and of course the man from the row behind.

I couldn’t hear from the video what the cabin attendant was saying to the man when the lady had been moved. He was clearly answering ‘I’m ok’ but that doesn’t mean the cabin crew were asking if he was.

I’d like to think their goal was to diffuse the situation and report when they could. I’m sure RyanAir staff have a shit job and ridiculous timeframes & targets even on the best of flights.

Nasty little shit picking on a little old dear.Would have loved a Mike Tyson lookalike to have taken the middle seat.

IF they weren't willing to throw him off out of fear of hours of delays for everyone else, then he should have been greeted at arrival with a police escort off the plane and charged for his racist abuse and banned from RyanAir in future.

Exactly!

@DGRossetti
Appalling cowardly behaviour from bystanders and staff.
It makes me nauseous but not surprised.
I’m 5’3 petite and look young I was racially abused whilst boarding a train with baby twins the only person who said something was an elderly white lady all the passengers in their thirties and forties said nothing.
I’ve never used train outside London since.

Unable to find a video where the offensive language isn't edited out! Which just sanitises it!

Based on reading here and elsewhere online, based on what others are saying about the video plus having viewed it with ridiculous amounts of bleeping!

He absolutely should have been removed not only for being a racist twat, but because he could have been a risky passenger generally, not a thing to be taken lightly with air travel - And why aren't the CAA coming down on Ryanair like a ton of bricks?!

Ryanair should be prosecuting and barring him, compensating and apologising to the woman and her daughter, retraining their staff - to do their bloody job properly and legally!

I don't agree it's always poorly educated that are racist, the better educated ones just do it more subtly so it's harder to call them out! Boris johnsons extremely privileged education has hardly stopped him!

To all those saying they understand why they didn't bump him off the plane re delays disruption etc - they COULD still have asked police to be waiting for the Dick at the other end! That wouldn't have caused delays etc! They COULD have made him move and if he got arsey warned him it was that or he was off the flight - either he'd have then bloody behaved or he'd have proven himself to be a risky passenger needing removed at which point the airline have to deal with that. And as a passenger I'd have no problem with that.

VERY well done to the passenger who intervened - frankly Ryanair should be thanking him by way of a decent gift and publicly. He was doing the attendants job for them!

Not sure if I'd have directly intervened as I wouldn't have felt safe necessarily doing so, but I'd have said to the attendants they need to do their job better and would probably have videoed and complained after the flight - meaning as soon as in the airport I'd have spoken to Ryanair staff. Mind you there's been times when the sense of injustice has overtaken me and I've intervened when perhaps it was wiser not to so who knows?

But as a passenger it's not unreasonable to expect the flight staff to properly deal with twats like this!

Apparently police weren't informed until this morning! So yea I'm thinking AFTER it had gone viral and they started worrying about press and profits!

"I doubt the Ryanair, the company, knew anything about this until the video went viral" nonsense! The flight staff knew and so no reason for hq not to know! And if they didn't they have bigger problems than one belligerent bigoted passenger!

Of course Ryanair knew. I imagine all cabin staff have to fill out reports of anything that happens.

Ryanair hoped it would go away. Then it went viral. Then they contacted the Police because of the outcry on social media. They are all about profits. Not people.

I don’t understand why a supervisor didn’t get the pilot out. I’ve been on a couple of flights where the pilot has come out for far more minor incidents and basically said, “knock it off or you’re out”. I’ve also been on one flight where police met and escorted off a disruptive passenger once we landed.

I can't believe the woman was moved! Ryanair should have shown absolute zero tolerance to this and told the racist b that he should walk to his destination if he can't peacefully co-exist in a diverse society. And I can't believe they asked him if HE was ok!
Absolutely disgraceful!

he should have been greeted at arrival with a police escort off the plane and charged for his racist abuse and banned from RyanAir in future

I agree; in fact this is the sort of thing I meant about sanctions following on

I'd wondered if he had been met off the flight or already banned, but now it seems police may have been informed afterwards. Bearing in mind the flight was due at Stansted late on Friday and the publicity appeared on Monday, I'm not sure if the timescale on this is reasonable or not

Either way, I hope he's prosecuted for his behaviour, banned from the airline and that Mrs Gayle gets a couple of free tickets to wherever she'd like to go

“To all those saying they understand why they didn't bump him off the plane re delays disruption etc - they COULD still have asked police to be waiting for the Dick at the other end!”

It’s mainly me who has said turfing him off night not have been easy, quick or the best course of action and I DID say they shoul have had police ready to get him on landing.

It's worth noting the woman was asked if she wanted to move by the air attendant early on in the video and she said no. She then did say clearly something to the man that wasnt caught on the audio.

Not excusing his behaviour, but i'd like to hear the full audio as her responses are almost entirely missing.

I'm not sure Ryanair have done anything other than resolve the issue with as much expediency as possible. I also interpreted that the air attendant returned to confirm whether the man could be calm enough to remain on the airplane, as opposed to check he were alright as it were.

Chucking him off the flight would have been a massive inconvenience to everyone concerned including the poor woman

At the point where the altercation took place the man was hard to get at, being in the window seat, and there was no one on between him and the lady, who we know could not move fast because of her arthritis. So I would have been very wary of being DH frintatuomsl with someone who was clearly hostile in case he moved to physically attack her.

I SUPPOSE the cabin attendant’s ‘we need to move this lady’ could have been a precursor to ‘so that we can get to him and move him’ or ‘put if harm’s way ‘ but it doesn’t seem as if he was moved / moved from the flight.

‘DH ftint... nonsense “ = ‘confrontational ‘

My typing!

The RyanAir attendant did the best thing possible. The woman had to move either way as she was in the outside seat. The attendant had no idea what caused the incident and calmed things down rather than escalating it.

Would it really have been better to delay hundreds of people and have police drag a screaming old man possibly mentally ill off the plane.

The pilot probably couldn't come out of the cockpit due to terrorist protocols. Its been reported to police and man banned from airline. I cant see what else would have made things end any better.

It's disgusting that it happened but I think the crew couldn't actually win - if they had called the Spanish police it would have meant many hours of delays for the innocent passengers (statements would have to be taken, luggage offloading and probably a fresh crew called in). Instead the case was reported to the police on arrival.

I've seen complaints about 24 hours of delays because of drunks being taken off flights (and crew not having enough hours to fly) airlines are in a lose-lose situation. Ryan air though needs to get its act in gear now to compensate the victim and permanently ban the culprit (plus share name with all airlines).

I'm not defending Ryan air cabin crew who should have intervened quicker on the flight, however it needs to be a balanced response now

Disgraceful

What level of criminal behaviour is necessary before an airline is prepared to lose its slot ?

He was threatening a vulnerable passenger
Ryanair should have called the airport police to remove him from the plane

... but of course money comes first.

There is absolutely no excuse for not contacting Essex police to be waiting for him when the plane landed

Shows that Ryanair don't give a damn about protecting passengers from aggressive scum
They just wanted to cover it up and move on

@Walkingdeadfangirl
Not a shred of empathy for the victim...

It's disgusting that it happened but I think the crew couldn't actually win - if they had called the Spanish police it would have meant many hours of delays for the innocent passengers

You know something ? Even if the majority of passengers felt unable to intervene for whatever reason, I am sure they would have happily suffered a little inconvenience instead ? Or is the message now that people can be as racist as possible, as long as nobody is inconvenienced ?

That aggressive racist is a menace and should be banned from flying for life

Ryanair are lucky that the elderly victim, instead of a daughter on the plane, didn't have a couple of strapping sons, to come over to defend her.
They could have had an all-out fight on the plane

I witnessed similar racist abuse on a Ryanair flight two years ago, but aimed at a flight attendant.

I was gobsmacked that they let a stag party onto the plane who stank of alcohol and were clearly too drunk to be on a plane in the first place, but to do nothing about two hours of aggressive racist shouting and swearing when there were kids on the plane was beyond me.

On the way home there was a medical emergency and the attendants didn’t have a fucking clue what to do. Three of them just stood and watched like headless chickens.

Haven’t flown with them since and won’t ever again!

I just think if they aren't decisive, it hardly gives out a good message does it, if anything serious were to go wrong?

I would never choose to fly Ryanair, and that was before this. They don't treat their staff well.

Fair enough Venus. Decent assertive but in control staff would have been able to handle this numpty without bumping him being necessary too.

Walkingdeadfangirl - I saw nothing in that video to indicate he either had learning difficulties or had mental illness. And as someone who does have mental illness I find the REPEATED ascribing of shit behaviour to these possibilities really fucking offensive!

I don't agree airlines in a no win position. If they took a zero tolerance approach to such passengers (including not admitting drunk or high passengers - personally I'd ban alcohol in airports and on flights) the majority of them wouldn't risk missing their flight let alone being arrested - most of them are just vocal arrogant chancers! The CAA could make them too.

BigChoc - I rather suspect a big reason why this twat felt ABLE to kick off the way he did was precisely because he WAS mainly talking to women, especially an elderly frail one! If it had been a strapping big black guy taking his time - for whatever reason - to get out the seat he wouldn't have DARED Say anything - typical bully - coward at heart!

Ryanair are lucky that the elderly victim, instead of a daughter on the plane, didn't have a couple of strapping sons, to come over to defend her. They could have had an all-out fight on the plane

Be a shame for them to descend to his level. Also, you just know that they would end up in court first. After being tasered. It's not just Ryanair passengers that can go tough on minorities. The UK as a whole can be just as bad .

If aeroplanes delayed flights by several hours every time a passenger said something rude/offensive then airports would grind to a halt.

What difference does it make if the police were waiting at the airport for the flight or picked the man up from his home the next day, it doesn't change the punishment. Police are very stretched and have to prioritise.