Black men told to leave flight sue American Airlines, claiming racial discrimination

From the Associated Press in connection with ABC News

Three Black men are suing American Airlines, claiming they were discriminated against when ordered to leave a plane in January.

NEW YORK — Black passengers who were briefly ordered off an American Airlines plane in January sued the airline Wednesday, alleging that they were victims of racial discrimination.

Three of the men filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York. They said they were told to leave a plane waiting to take off in Phoenix and noticed five other black men who also had been ordered off the flight.

The three, who did not know each other and had been sitting in different parts of the plane, said an airline employee told them they were removed because a flight attendant had complained about a passenger’s body odor. The men said they responded that it appeared they were targeted for removal solely because of their race.

American offered to rebook them, but when it became clear after about an hour that there were no other available flights to New York that evening, they were allowed to re-board the plane, according to the lawsuit filed by Public Citizen, a consumer-advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader.

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