American Airlines has removed a black man from his flight to Phoenix on May 31 after he requested to switch a seat.

The black man and four other individuals had filed a joint discrimination lawsuit against the American Airlines. 

American Airlines
(Photo : Reuters Connect)
An American Airlines Boeing 737 jet sits at a gate at Washington's Reagan National airport with the U.S. Capitol building in the background, in Washington, U.S.

Elgin Banks, the black passenger, was on his scheduled flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix when he was asked by the flight attendant to leave the American Airlines. 

Banks, who is from Arizona, asked if he could sit closer to the front, according to the lawsuit he filed.

However, the flight attendant rudely replied and asked him to step back.

Additionally, the Black man also stated in his lawsuit that he was approached by a security personnel, who told him to leave and get off the plane.

Meanwhile, four other American Airlines passengers on that day were also escorted and removed from their flights after they witnessed and defended the Black man.

All of them were later on banned from traveling through the American Airlines, MSN News reports. 

American Airlines Denies the Allegation 

American Airlines has denied the allegations thrown against them.

The airline said that Banks requested to be transferred to the first-class cabin.

However, he was not eligible and was told to stay in his assigned seat. 

In a statement released by the American Airlines through its spokesperson, the company said Banks attempted to relocate to the first-class cabin during the boarding process and before leaving the gate.

However, the seat was already assigned to another passenger. 

Moreover, American Airlines also denied that they banned Banks and the other passengers.

The airline asserted that they are not allowing any forms of discrimination and it is not aligned with the core values of the airlines.

They also added that they are now conducting an investigation about the alleged racial discrimination.

American Airlines' History of Discrimination

This was not the first time that the American Airlines got involved on discrimination issues.

In fact, they have been accused of discriminating some individuals in the past based on their skin color or racial or ethnic origin.

In 2019, two Muslim men were racially profiled and were forced to leave the airline because one of them used the bathroom twice before the scheduled take-off.

The two Muslim men from Dallas were suspected of doing something else, according to a published report in NBC News. 

American Airlines said they reviewed the incident and had reached out to the two Muslim men to explain their side. 

In 2018, Black rapper Wale tweeted that two flight attendants from the American Airlines threatened him that they will call the police because they thought that he did not belong in the first class cabin.

Later, American Airlines asked an apology.

Meanwhile, the incident that happened to the black man and other passengers of American Airlines caught the attention of the rapper and actor Ice Cube, who has more than 5 million followers on social media.

In his post, he tweeted that black people are having more and more problems with American Airlines, and he won't fly with the airlines "until they "fix their attitude."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, on the other hand, issued a travel advisory and gave a warning to the African-American community to be cautious when traveling via American Airlines because of its pattern of racial discrimination.

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