Sikh, three friends told to deboard US flight
Wednesday, 20/01/2016
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
NEW YORK: A Sikh man and his three Muslim friends, who were asked to deboard an American Airlines flight because their appearance made the captain uneasy, have filed a $9-million (around `60 crore) lawsuit against the airline.
Shan Anand (a Sikh), Faimul Alam, besides a Bangladeshi Muslim and an Arab Muslim — all young US citizens — were ordered off the flight 44718 from Toronto to New York in December last year based upon their perceived race, colour and ethnicity, CNN reported on Tuesday. The Bangladeshi Muslim and Arab Muslim were identified by their initials WH and MK. Anand and Alam switched seats with strangers after boarding, so they could sit next to WH and MK. Several minutes later, a white woman flight attendant asked WH to get off the plane, as per the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in Brooklyn federal court. When they asked the flight crew why they were being removed, the flight attendant told them to exit “peacefully” and “demanded” they return to the gate and await further directions, the lawsuit said. “It basically made me feel like a criminal,” WH said, adding: “It was like I was put on a pedestal where everyone is pointing at you. I was frightened that they were frightened.” It was only after the plane took off that an airline agent told the men “they could not board because the crew members, and specifically the captain, felt uneasy and uncomfortable with their presence on the flight and as such, refused to fly unless they were removed from the flight,” the report said.
The flight took off, leaving the four men behind. “They said it was protocol,” said Anand.
