Ryanair criticized for not removing racially abusive man from flight

LONDON, Oct. 22  — The famous budget airline Ryanair has been criticized after failing to remove a racist passenger from a flight from Barcelona to London Stansted on Friday.
According to a short video shot by a fellow passenger, the incident started after a woman was unable to move out from her seat quickly to let a man enter and sit in his window seat.
Then the man shouted at the woman while her daughter told him her mother was disabled. Although a fellow passenger and a flight attendant tried to intervene and calm the man down, he replied that he would carry on as far as possible with “this ugly black bastard.”
A number of passengers on the flight called for the man to be removed from the plane, but he was still allowed to stay on it, which sparked outrages of public and politicians after the video was viewed for more than 4 million times on Facebook.
David Lawrence, the passenger who recorded the widespread video, told BBC that he was “shocked” that Ryanair “allowed something like this just to go unchecked.”
“He should have been removed from the flight and handed over to the police,” the Member of Parliament and shadow transport minister Karl Turner also tweeted.
“We operate strict guidelines for disruptive passengers and we will not tolerate unruly behavior like this,” Ryanair replied. “We will be taking this matter further and disruptive or abusive behavior like this will result in passengers being banned from travel.”
The airline tweeted on Sunday that it has reported the incident to the police.
Founded in 1984, Ryanair is one of the largest airlines in Europe, serving 37 countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia. – XINHUA