A Ryanair passenger was captured on camera verbally abusing a black woman who had the misfortune to be seated near him. In video of the incident, the man unleashes a torrent of racist abuse as other passengers look on in horror.
Footage of the outburst was shared by passenger David Lawrence who filmed the incident on Friday on Ryanair flight FR9015 from Barcelona to London. It has been viewed nearly 2 million times on Facebook and shared by over 24,000 social media users.
The clip shows cabin crew attempting to calm the irate passenger down as he continues to hurl racist abuse at the woman, calling her an “ugly, black b*****d”.
“I tell you what, I hope someone sits there because I don’t want to sit next to your ugly face, your ugly f*****g face,” he shouted. When the woman attempted to respond quietly he screamed: “Don't talk to me in a f*****g foreign language you stupid ugly cow.”
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The incensed man also threatened the woman, saying: “I’ll tell you this. If you don’t go to another seat, I’ll put you into another seat,” before she asked to be moved to sit beside her daughter. One passenger sitting behind the victim attempted to intervene and tell the man to be quiet as cabin crew appeared unsure how to control the situation.
Lawrence, the passenger who captured the video, and many angry viewers including several MPs, are criticizing Ryanair for failing to protect their passenger by stopping the torrent of abuse sooner. They’re also lambasting the airline for moving the victim, and not kicking the racist off the flight.
A spokesperson for Ryanair told RT that the incident has been reported to Essex Police, but did not comment on the airline’s policy for protecting passengers from racism or verbal abuse. In a statement to RT.com, Essex Police said they were only “made aware” of the incident on Sunday morning, and confirmed they are looking into it.
“Essex Police takes prejudice-based crime seriously and we want all incidents to be reported. We are working closely with Ryanair and the Spanish authorities on the investigation,” the statement read.
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