Three strangers sue airline over removal from plane after body odour complaint

Three men allege they were forced to deboard a plane following a complaint about body odour, despite not knowing each other or sitting together on the plane.

Three black men allege they were forced to deboard a plane in the United States following a complaint about body odour, despite not knowing each other or sitting together on the plane.

Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph and Xavier Veal are suing American Airlines for race discrimination over the incident.

They allege an airline employee “skipped over rows of other passengers” and ordered them off the plane on January 5 this year without explanation, and when they got to the jet bridge, they realised five other black men on the plane had also been ordered off.

The lawsuit alleges an American Airlines representative told them, once off the plane, a complaint about offensive body odour had come from a white male flight attendant.

Videos provided to media by Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organisation representing the men, appeared to capture this moment.

The three men, who live in New York, were travelling home from Los Angeles but the flight involved a layover and change of planes in Phoenix, Arizona.

The lawsuit claims the men were told they would have to be rebooked on another flight but after about an hour it was determined there were no other flights that evening they could be rebooked on and were instead allowed to reboard Flight 832 from Phoenix to New York.

The men then had to reboard the plane and “endure the stares of the largely white passengers who viewed them as the cause of the substantial delay,” the lawsuit said.

“They suffered during the entire flight home, and the entire incident was traumatic, upsetting, scary, humiliating, and degrading.”

A statement provided to news.com.au by American Airlines said: “We take all claims of discrimination very seriously and want our customers to have a positive experience when they choose to fly with us.

“Our teams are currently investigating the matter, as the claims do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people.”

The three men are seeking compensation for pain and suffering and a punitive damage award “sufficient to deter American from discriminating against black passengers in the future.”

Xavier Veal, Emmanuel Jean Joseph and Alvin Jackson. Pictures: Supplied

In a joint statement, Mr Jackson, Mr Joseph and Mr Veal asked people to imagine what it would have been like if the situation was reversed.

“Imagine a flight attendant ordering every white person off a plane because of a complaint about one white person,” they said.

“That would never happen. But that is what happened to us. There is no explanation other than the colour of our skin. American Airlines singled us out for being black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us. Clearly, this was discrimination.”

The men’s lawyer Susan Huhta said what happened to the men “strongly suggests” the airline racially profiled them.

“If American Airlines received a complaint about a black male passenger with offensive body odour, but could not verify the complaint, the solution should not have been to eject eight separate black men from the plane,” she said.