The four Brooklyn men who were kicked off a flight from Toronto to New York back in December have filed a claim against American Airlines, alleging that they were removed for looking too Muslim.
The men had exchanged their reservations so they could all fly home to New York together. Two changed their flights and two others changed their seats. A flight attendant reacted to these changes by asking one of the men, recognised in the lawsuit as W.H., to get off the plane.
In a private interview, W.H. told the Daily News, 'I thought it was an evacuation or something so I didn't think anything of it but then she told me to take my bags and when I went back into the plane, I saw I was the only one standing.'
In total, four men were removed from the plane. Two other men going with them, one Hispanic and one Pakistani were permitted to remain but were advised to simply be peaceful. According to the Daily News report, when they cleared out the plane, an American Airlines agent told them that they had made the crew uncomfortable.
Based on the lawsuit (that was documented in Brooklyn Federal Court) when one of the men questioned the agent concerning whether they'd been kicked off in light of the way they looked, the agent said it didn't help.
Every man is asking $1 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. American Airlines did not remark to the Daily News, clarifying that it had not yet got the lawsuit.
This occurrence is one of a few that have made the news over the previous year, all of that bring up issues about when aircraft personnel should have the capacity to make security calls and on what grounds they ought to be permitted to do so.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
