A man who was filmed racially abusing an elderly black woman on a Ryanair flight has been identified, according to police.
Essex Police said it had identified both parties involved in the incident and passed the details to Spanish authorities who were leading the investigation.
The man was named last night as David Mesher, 70, a former railway announcer from Yardley Wood, Birmingham, The Times and other newspapers reported this morning.
He declined to apologise when approached by the media.
“Go away, there’s nothing to say,” he said.
Ryanair has been criticised for failing to remove the abusive passenger and instead making the woman move.
The budget carrier said it had spoken to 77-year-old Delsie Gayle’s family.
The incident took place on a flight from Barcelona to Stansted on Friday and was recorded by fellow passenger David Lawrence who shared it on social media.
An Essex Police spokeswoman said: “We have worked to identify both parties involved in this incident and passed this information to the Spanish authorities, who are leading on this investigation.
“Our officers will continue to provide assistance where necessary throughout the course of this case.”
In the recording of the incident the man can be heard threatening to push Mrs Gayle to another seat as well as racially abusing her.
Her daughter, Carol, said she had been told she can expect to give a police statement by Thursday.
Meanwhile, an online poll calling for Ryanair to apologise over its handling of the incident has been launched. The Change.org petition started by race equality campaigner Zita Holbourne is demanding that Mrs Gayle is compensated by the airline for its failure to support her.
A Ryanair spokeswoman said its customer care team had contacted the woman’s family, but would not comment further due to the incident being a police matter.
Barcelona deputy mayor Jaume Asens described the budget airline’s handling of the man’s behaviour as “unacceptable” and called for witnesses to make contact.
Mr Lawrence said that in the age of social media “visual is important” and “now the world knows” what happened.
He told BBC Breakfast: “I had to make a difficult decision at that time because if I had stepped in I don’t think you would have seen the footage that I captured.”