A Hard Day's Flight
A tidal wave of outrage flooded social media after the publication of a controversial video, which shows an elderly man on a London-bound flight from Barcelona swearing at a woman in her seventies. The altercation reportedly broke out after she took some time moving out of her aisle seat to allow the man access his window seat.
This racist white man refused to sit next to an elderly black woman on a Ryanair flight.
— StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) 20 октября 2018 г.
He called her an "ugly black bastard" & threatened to push her to another seat if she didn't move to another seat.
Ryanair — DOES NOTHING!!!
UK twitter identify HIM!!!
RETWEET THIS! pic.twitter.com/70XNsvTZBg
The man calls the woman "an ugly f*****g c**t" and says that he doesn't want to be seated next to her, threating to "push" her if she doesn't move elsewhere.
Cabin crew then appear to be trying to calm down the man and ask the elderly woman if she would like to be moved to another seat.
"Don't talk to me in a foreign language, you stupid ugly cow," the perpetrator shouts when the woman spoke in a Jamaican accent, then replying to her daughter: "I don't care whether she's f******g disabled or not. If I tell her to get out she gets out." A man in a black T-shirt can be seen standing up and telling the bully to stop and "take it easy, there's no need for that" while a person behind the camera demands that he is removed from the flight.
The woman's 53-year-old daughter said in an interview with the Huffington Post that they were coming back to the UK from a holiday designed to cheer her mother up as they marked a year since the death of her father.
The footage has racked up over 1.54 million views and rocked social media in the UK, also prompting a handful of stinging rebukes from lawmakers.
Calling for Justice
Labour MP Karl Turner insisted that the bully should have been kicked out of the flight and face charges.
He should have been removed from the flight and handed over to the police. We assume the aircraft was in the UK. If it was, he definitely committed criminal offences. I fully expect @Ryanair to confirm the situation if In fact it was their flight? https://t.co/ORfww9ZiPg
— Karl Turner MP (@KarlTurnerMP) 21 октября 2018 г.
Robert Halfon, a Tory MP and Chair of the Education Committee in the House of Commons, called Ryanair's lack of response "horrific" and questioned why the man wasn't removed from the flight.
This is just awful if true. How on earth did @Ryanair not throw the individual off the plane rather than asking the lady who was being abused to move seats? #RyanAir @ryanair you are horrific. https://t.co/SiZqGMXocN
— Robert Halfon MP #WorkingHard4Harlow (@halfon4harlowMP) 21 октября 2018 г.
Ryanair said that it would not "tolerate unruly behavior like this" and that it reported the incident to Essex Police.
