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A woman who was the victim of a racist tirade on a Ryanair flight has rejected an apology from the pbadenger, after he denied being racist.
David Mesher apologised publicly for the first time in an interview aired on Friday over his treatment of Delsie Gayle, saying he lost his temper “a bit”.
Footage showed him calling the 77-year-old woman an “ugly black bastard” and telling her “don’t speak to me in a foreign language, you stupid ugly cow”.
Racist incident filmed on Ryanair flight – video
It came as Ryanair issued a statement on Friday claiming it only became aware of the footage late on 20 October, a day after the incident, and had contacted police on 21 October. It said cabin crew at the time had not been aware of racist comments being made.
Mesher, who has been spoken to by police in Birmingham, where he lives, apologised for the first time in the interview, aired a week after the incident.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain the dispute began after he asked Gayle to move from her seat but “she didn’t seem to want to get up”.
Delsie Gayle, the pbadenger who was abused by David Mesher on a flight. Photograph: ITV
“I probably lost my temper a bit and ordered her to get up,” he said, adding that he “absolutely” regrets his behaviour.
“I’m not a racist person by any means and it’s just a fit of temper at the time, I think,” he said. “I apologise for all the distress you’ve had there and since.”
But Gayle and her daughter, Carol Gayle, rejected the apology over the language used on the plane from Barcelona to London on 19 October.
Asked if she accepted the apology, Delsie Gayle said: “I don’t think so. You must forget and forgive but it’s going to take a long time for me to get over what he has done to me.”
Her daughter added: “He says he wasn’t racist. He wouldn’t be saying words like that if he wasn’t racist.”
In a statement posted on Twitter, Ryanair said it had “immediately” reported the video to Esbad police in Stansted airport at 9am on Sunday 21 October, after becoming aware of it “late” on the day before. It said it provided police with a copy of the video and details of the two pbadengers involved.
“These prompt actions disprove the false claims that Ryanair did not respond ‘quickly’ or ‘appropriately’ to this video,” it said.
The airline said its Spanish cabin crew were aware of an argument between two pbadengers during boarding “but were not aware of, as they were not present when, racists comments were made by the male pbadenger towards the female pbadenger”.
It went on to state that the video of the events was not shown to cabin crew until after landing at Stansted, adding: “Ryanair did not become aware of the contents of the video until late on Saturday evening when it gained widespread coverage on social media.”
As cabin crew believed they were dealing with an argument between two pbadengers, they followed company procedure “to defuse the argument” and separate them by offering to move one to an alternative place. In this case, the company said, the female pbadenger moved “at her request” and both people confirmed that they were “OK”.
“As far as cabin crew were concerned, that was the end of the matter, and since there was no threat to aircraft safety the issue of offloading one pbadenger did not arise,” Ryanair said.
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