Three Men Sue American Airlines for Removing All Black Passengers From Flight Over ‘Body Odour’ Complaint

Three Black men are suing American Airlines, alleging racial discrimination following their removal from a flight due to a body odour complaint. Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph, and Xavier Veal filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, claiming that they and five other Black men were singled out and removed from a January 5 flight from Phoenix to New York.

The men, who were not travelling together and did not know each other, reported that a flight attendant asked them to leave the plane just before departure. They then realised that only Black passengers were being removed. The plaintiffs stated, “American Airlines singled us out for being Black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us.”

At the gate, an airline agent reportedly told them that a white male flight attendant had complained about an unidentified passenger’s body odour. The men denied this accusation, describing the claim as false.

There is no explanation other than the colour of our skin, the men said in a statement, calling the incident clear racial discrimination.

American Airlines tried to rebook the men on other flights to New York but ultimately allowed them to reboard the original flight after an hour-long delay.

The airline issued a statement saying,

We take all discrimination claims very seriously and want our customers to have a positive experience when they fly with us. Our teams are investigating the matter, as the claims do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, centred on the men’s feelings of humiliation and distress throughout the ordeal. They seek unspecified damages for the trauma they endured and hope the lawsuit will ensure that American Airlines is held accountable for its actions.

Emmanuel Jean Joseph likened the experience to historical instances of racial discrimination, remarking, “It’s a strange, crazy story that in 2024 we are still going through stuff like this.” The lawsuit also references a 2017 NAACP travel advisory warning Black Americans about potential discrimination by American Airlines, which was lifted the following year after the airline made operational changes.

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