Ryanair has defended its handling of a video of racist abuse on one of its flights for which it had drawn criticism for not acting quickly or appropriately.
It comes as passenger David Mesher apologised to Delsie Gayle for his rant during the boarding of the flight from Barcelona to Stansted on Friday October 19.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that he was “not a racist person by any means” and it was “just a fit of temper at the time” – but his apology was rejected by Mrs Gayle, 77, and her daughter Carol.
In a statement issued this morning, a week after the incident, the budget carrier sought to “address the inaccurate media coverage”.
The airline said its Spanish cabin crew were aware of the argument between two passengers during boarding but were not aware of the racist comments made – which Ryanair put down to them not being within earshot. It said they followed company procedure by separating the passengers. Cabin crew moved the female victim “at her request”, Ryanair said, adding that both passengers had confirmed they were ‘okay’ before take-off.
The airline says the video including the racist comments was not shown to cabin crew until after landing at Stansted and that “Ryanair did not become aware of the contents of the video until late on Sat (sic) evening when it gained widespread coverage on social media”.
It said it reported the incident to Essex Police at 9am Sunday morning and wrote to Mrs Gayle to apologise for what had happened.
Ryanair’s head of communications Robin Kiely said: “We again extend our very sincere apologies to this passenger for the regrettable, and unacceptable remarks that were made to her by an adjacent passenger, and we believe that by reporting this matter immediately to the Essex Police and by apologising in writing to this customer early on Sunday morning, Ryanair treated it with the urgency and seriousness it warranted.
“We trust that this statement will address the inaccurate media coverage of this incident over recent days, and that the legal rights of both passengers will be respected, while the police services in Essex and Barcelona conduct their investigation of this matter, with Ryanair’s full cooperation and assistance.”
This racist white man refused to sit next to an elderly black woman on a Ryanair flight.
He called her an “ugly black bastard” & threatened to push her to another seat if she didn’t move to another seat.
Ryanair – DOES NOTHING!!!
UK twitter identify HIM!!!
RETWEET THIS! pic.twitter.com/70XNsvTZBg
— StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) 20 October 2018