American Airlines has reached an out-of-court settlement with three Black passengers who were booted from a flight in January over a false body odor complaint that has brought major changes to how the Fort Worth-based carrier deals with non-safety or security-related complaints.
On Thursday, a New York district court was told that the three passengers had reached a so-called ‘stipulation of dismissal with prejudice’ with American Airlines, which means that all parties have voluntarily agreed to dismiss the lawsuit.
The court was not told the details of the permanent and binding settlement agreement. The terms of the settlement, however, prohibit the men from bringing any future claims against American Airlines for the same incident.
The men’s treatment at the hands of American Airlines only came to light in June when they filed their lawsuit, accusing the carrier of “blatant and egregious race discrimination” during the January 5 incident on flight 832 from Phoenix.
The men, who were unrelated and not traveling together, were removed from the flight to New York JFK by a flight attendant who claimed to have received a complaint about one of the Black male passengers on the plane having pungent body odor.
A decision was taken to remove all the single Black men from the airplane, with gate agents scrambling to rebook them on alternative flights.
When it became apparent that there were no spare seats on any other flight to New York, they were eventually allowed to reboard the original flight, which had been delayed for more than an hour and stuck at the gate as American Airlines tried to resolve the issue.
As the men reboarded the aircraft, they were met with stares from a mostly White crowd of passengers who viewed the Black men as the cause of the delay.
In the wake of the lawsuit, the NAACP threatened to issue a travel advisory warning Black passengers not to travel with American Airlines unless the carrier delivered a ‘swift and decisive response’ to the allegations.
Several weeks later, American Airlines stood down the employees involved in the decision-making process that resulted in all the Black male passengers from Flight 832 being offloaded.
Chief executive Robert Isom told employees in a leaked memo that he was “incredibly disappointed” by what occurred on Flight 832 and promised a slew of changes to avoid a repeat occurrence.
Last month, American Airlines told flight attendants that they would no longer have the power to unilaterally have passengers booted from flights for non-safety or security-related concerns.
An internal memo highlighting the policy shift emphasized that the airline should strive to carry every ticketed passenger unless they pose a safety or security risk. The memo further stated that discrimination is “unacceptable and will not be tolerated at American Airlines.”
Flight attendants have been ordered not to get involved in minor issues like a passenger’s choice of clothes or their body odor unless another customer makes a direct complaint to them.
Even then, flight attendants should first attempt to de-escalate the situation to keep “all customer travel intact.” The final decision to deplane a passenger will no longer rest with the flight attendants but a specially trained Customer Resolution Officer.
