A man launches a racist speech on a Ryanair plane – but keeps his seat

British police have called in witnesses after a passenger from a European airline made racist remarks about another passenger caught on video.

The man had threatened to "push" an old black woman to another seat.

A member of the crew of the Ryanair flight between Barcelona (Spain) and London intervened, but the flight took off on Friday with at least one passenger who wanted the unidentified man who made these remarks to be removed from the airport. flight.

In the video, we heard a man sitting by a window claiming that he had refused to sit next to an elderly woman sitting in a hallway seat. The man launched insults at the woman and called him "dirty black bastard" before taking off from the flight, according to a cell phone video recorded by London-based musician David Lawrence.

Lawrence posted the video on social media on Friday.

"This incident, which we were informed yesterday morning, would have occurred in a plane at Barcelona airport," said police in charge of the London Stansted airport area, where the flight landed.

"The Essex police are serious about bias-based crimes and we want all incidents to be reported. We are working closely with Ryanair and the Spanish authorities in connection with the investigation. We encourage anyone with information to contact us. "

Lawrence, 56, told CNN Sunday in a phone interview: "When you look at the images, you will see that it begins to unfold at the point where this man starts a torrent of abuse, of absolutely disgusting and hateful words against this old black woman "

Lawrence stated that the flight attendant could have called the captain, escorted him or called the police.

"If it was another situation where it was a black man doing that to an old white woman, they would have escorted him off the flight," Lawrence said. "He would probably have ended up in a Spanish prison, even today."

In a statement released on Sunday, Ryanair said: "We are aware of this video and have reported the case to the police in Essex". The airline declined to comment further.

Labor MP David Lammy, who represents London's Tottenham district, has called for a boycott of Ryanair "if they think it's okay for a racist man to mistreat an old black woman and stay on the plane."

"It's been 63 years since Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus and we do not go back," Lammy wrote.

"Get up from my seat"

Lawrence stated that he was settling into the flight back from a business trip when he heard the commotion.

The woman was sitting two rows behind him on the other side of the plane; his daughter was several rows behind her, said Lawrence.

"I heard the voice of a man behind me, very loud, very aggressive, screaming, "Stay away from my seat. Move your feet now. I have to go, "recalls Lawrence.

"I turned around … and saw this man standing near the old black woman who was screaming for him to get out of the way," Lawrence said.

In an interview with Huffington Post UK, the woman's daughter said the disagreement began when her mother, who was suffering from arthritis, did not immediately get up from her driveway to allow the man to go to the window. .

Lawrence told CNN that the woman's daughter had stood up and had come to the defense of her mother, claiming she was elderly and disabled.

"Someone needs to capture that"

It was at that time that Lawrence stated that he had caught his phone and started the registration, while a flight attendant had tried to intervene.

"None of the passengers got involved," he said. "There was no one in authority around."

He added, "And then, I thought that someone had to capture that."

Lawrence recalled that some passengers "laughed".

"I could not believe that I was in a plane in 2018 with this type of attitude, this type of behavior that was not controlled, which remained unpunished," he said.

The woman's daughter told the man not to shout after his mother.

"Do not tell me what to do. If I tell her to go out, she goes out, "replied the man.

Later, he said: "I tell you, I hope that someone will sit there because I do not want to sit next to you," and pointed to the seat between them. Then he treated her as "ugly ugly cow".

"I'll tell you this, if you do not go to another seat, I'll push you to another seat."

When the woman spoke to him with a Jamaican accent, he replied, "Do not talk to me in a foreign tongue, you stupid, ugly, ugly cow."

A passenger sitting behind the man tried to intervene and urged him to stop.

"I will continue as far as possible with this ugly black bastard," the man replied.

At one point, the woman told the man "you stink" and said that she would kick him. Then she asked to sit with her daughter.

The flight attendant asked the man to calm down and said he would talk to his supervisor.

"I have witnessed this type of racism"

In an interview with Huffington Post UK, the woman said her 77-year-old mother was returning from vacation to commemorate the first anniversary of her husband's death. Her parents had been married for over 50 years, the girl said.

His mother, a Jamaican living east of London, is part of a generation of now-elderly Caribbean residents who have been invited by the British government to help rebuild Britain after the devastation. from the Second World War, said the girl at the Huffington Post UK.

"The underlying reason for the abusive behavior of the man lies in the fact that my mother is a black woman and that he did not want her to sit next to him – he says it in the video, "said her daughter at the Huffington Post UK.

Lawrence said his parents were part of this wave of Caribbean immigrants in the 1940s and 1950s.

"I've been witnessing this type of racism here in Europe for years," Lawrence said. "There was no way to share that with the world."

"I'm in a period where I have the technology and can use it to show the evidence to people," said Lawrence.