Should Racist Passengers Face Criminal Charges?
Meg Butler February 27, 2019
Should racist passengers face criminal charges? Maybe one day we won’t have to answer that question, but today is not that day. We’ve covered more than our fair share of racist passenger rants on FlyerTalk. There was the “international lawyer” who launched into a racist tirade against the Air India staff who wouldn’t serve her more alcohol, the Frontier passenger who tried to pull his “white card” and the passenger whose plane turned around when she was caught texting slurs on her phone.
UPDATE: Please sign these petitions to continue the good fight!https://www.change.org/p/ryanair-apologise-to-compensate-delsie-gayle-for-racist-abuse-on-your-flight https://www.change.org/p/sadiq-khan-boycott-ryanair-for-failure-to-provide-duty-of-care-to-a-passenger-who-was-racially-abused?recruiter=907313332&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition RACIST MAN REFUSES TO SIT NEXT TO ELDERLY BLACK WOMAN on Ryanair flight calling victim an UGLY BLACK BASTARD and Ryanair – DOES NOTHING!!! #Racist #whiteprivilege#ryanair #BLACKHISYORYMONTH #racehate #nationalhatecrimeawarenessweek
Posted by David Lawrence on Friday, October 19, 2018
How airlines handles these unfortunate moments in passenger relations varies from airline to airline and from incident to incident. But, when Ryanair did seemingly little in response to an October 2018 incident in which passenger David Mesher, 70 launched into racist hysterics when 77-year-old Delsie Gayle, the elderly black woman sitting in his row, didn’t get up fast enough to let him in, the airline found itself the subject of viral social media fire for not properly handling the situation in-flight (Gayle was moved to quiet Mesher down) and for issuing this not-quite-an-apology on social media:
Statement: We are aware of this video and have reported this matter to Essex Police
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) October 21, 2018
Now that the viral social media outrage has thrust this story into the news, the Essex police have attempted but failed to charge Mesher (the incident happened in Spain which is out of their jurisdiction) but are now passing the matter on to the Spanish authorities who are looking into the matter. In the interim, Robin Kiely from Ryanair has apologized for the “regrettable, and unacceptable remarks” made to Gale. Mesher maintains that he is “not a racist person by any means” and that the incident was “just a fit of temper at the time”.
We’ll keep you updated as the story continues to unfold.
@kkua, I've seen plenty of bad behavior on other airlines. No airline is immune from boarding idiots. They may differ in how they handle them, but as a common carrier that sells to everyone, anyone can end up on a plane.
If they can afford to fly, they can afford to have manners. Sad that this happened aboard a low-cost carrier. You’ll be hard to find this piss-poor behavior on a full service airline.
How threatening and hurtful this must have been for poor lady who was moved away from that hate spewing person. I do not know what the legal process is in how to address such behavior right now but I certainly cannot agree that she should be subject to such treatment. Ideally he should have been removed from the plane until he can calmly board and behave allowing for dignified and unthreatened flight for other passengers.
They should have thrown the Abu’s e passenger off for that behaviour. The lady did nothing wrong, and all the other passengers clearly sided with her. The guys behaviour and language were unacceptable, and he should never have been pandered to by moving the lady
I say mind your own business, everyone is so busy what other people are saying and doing and especially in the States, if one disagrees with a Snowflake Leftie, you are called racist, homophobic, Islamaphobic, genderphobic, deplorable, blahblahblahphobic. Mind your own damn business. This is not news or worthy or the space on flyertalk LOL. Send it to CNN, they'd love it. Fake News. If flyertalk is to become a site for SJW's , why don't you cover the homeless problem in San Francisco. Your leftie mates have turned that city into a ghetto. A drug-infested, urine smelling, homeless shelter for Democrat voters. Worry about that first before turning this into a "She-said, He-Said, I-said non event of the year. TRUMP 2020, Keeping America Great.