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Spirit Airlines: Seven Black Passengers Kicked Off Plane, Racism Claims Levied [Watch]

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 03:43 PST, Nov 3, 2015

Black Spirit Airlines passengers claim they were kicked off their flight by a racist white flight attendant. The seven passengers were removed from a flight at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday night.

The Spirit Airlines Flight 868 was bound for Dallas. The six black passengers, three couples, were escorted off the plane by police officers, the Daily Mail reports. The passengers claim they are victims of racial discrimination and were kicked off the plane simply because they are black.

Witnesses to the removal of the three black couples said that the male white flight attendant accused one person in the group of making a threat. Alexandria Wright, one of the black passengers kicked off the Spirit Airlines flight, recorded a portion of the incident on her cell phone.

https://youtu.be/2GQeKnFOBvI

The video reportedly shows a man being escorted off the plane and telling the police officers that the flight attendant was being rude. The incident began with a dispute over a double-booked seat accusation by one of the ejected passengers, according to witness statements.

During an interview with CBS Los Angeles, Ty Walker, one of the removed passengers and the man shown in the cellphone video, said the white flight attendant told him that he had to switch seats. Walker said he was prepared to comply when the attendant made some type of remark to him.

In response, Walker said he replied by saying something like, “I’m not talking to you, don’t talk to me.”

“A man was sitting in the wrong seat so he and the woman were supposed to switch seats, but they decided that they wanted to sit together. The flight attendant overheard the conversation. He came over and was just kind of making nasty remarks, making them switch. He was just really nasty towards him and told him, ‘No, you guys have to switch,'” Walker claims.

Walker claims after the verbal exchange, the Spirit Airlines flight attendant called for the police to come onto the plane and to escort Ty Walker off the runway. The five other people in the group maintain that when they spoke out in defense of Walker’s removal from Flight 868, the police officers were called back, and they too were kicked off the plane.

“I’m really humiliated just for the simple fact that you hear about this type of stuff happening in America, discrimination issues and stuff like that, but to actually experience it first-hand,” Alexandria Wright said. “It was more than just us having the conversation. Why is that six black people got kicked off the plane?”

Spirit Airlines stated in a press release that the six passengers were causing problems for their fellow passengers and had become “unruly” on the plane. The airline also stated that they asked them to calm down and stop the disruptive behavior. When the passengers did not comply, law enforcement officers were called to escort the individuals off the plane, the statement also relayed.

“Flight crew asked them to stop. When they did not, law enforcement was called and they were removed from the flight,” the press release noted.

The Spirit Airlines flight took off from the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at 8 p.m. without the six black passengers on board the plane. After the plane landed safely in Dallas, some of the passengers on Flight 686 spoke to reporters and said the six people kicked off the plane were being disruptive.

[Image via GregK_ca/Shutterstock.com]

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