RyanAir faces backlash over handling of racial incident
When a white passenger berated his elderly black seatmate, flight attendants didn’t respond, and video was captured and shared on Facebook. Some call for a boycott of the discount airline.
On social media, every crisis poses a threat to your organization.
RyanAir, the discount European airline, is facing calls for a boycott after video surfaced on Facebook of a flight crew failing to intervene in a racially charged incident before a flight from Barcelona, Spain.
From his window seat on a Ryanair flight set to take off for London, the white man berated and bullied an elderly black passenger, loudly ordering her to move out of his way, and making racist comments about her appearance and her accent.
He called her a “stupid, ugly cow” and an “ugly black bastard,” and told her not to speak to him in a “foreign language,” though the Jamaican-born woman was speaking English.
But flight attendants did not usher him to a different seat or off the plane. Instead, with a cellphone camera recording, the woman was forced to move as the man threatened to push her. The flight soon took off from Barcelona, Spain, without the man apparently facing any consequences.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today
Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.