American Airlines is facing a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by three Black men who claim that the carrier briefly removed them off a flight in response to a body odor complaint.

The flight, which took place on January 5, was from Phoenix, Arizona, to New York. The men said they were not traveling together because they did not know each other.

Black Men Briefly Removed From Aircraft Over Body Odor Complaint

In a press statement released on Wednesday, May 29, consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen said in a federal complaint that the men were already seated and ready to take off from Phoenix when a flight attendant approached them individually and requested that they get off the aircraft.

Xavier Veal, Alvin Jackson, and Emmanuel Jean Joseph claim that they saw every Black male removed from the aircraft as they were getting off the plane. The three pointed out that there had been no problem with the flights they had taken out of Los Angeles earlier that day.

An airline representative informed the three men and five others at the gate that they had been removed due to the white male flight attendant's complaint about the body odor of an unnamed passenger.

The guys said in the statement that the incident caused them embarrassment and humiliation. "Clearly, this was discrimination."

Staff members from American Airlines attempted to reschedule the guys on other flights, but no alternative flights to New York were available that evening. At that moment, the group could retake their seats on the original flight.

The men, however, said that getting back to their seats after the unnecessary holdup was an even more humiliating experience since they had to squeeze past the other passengers, some of whom stared at them with "anger and undue suspicion."

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Plaintiffs Demanding Punitive Damages and Compensation

In their federal court case in Brooklyn, the men are reportedly seeking punitive damages and an undisclosed sum of compensation for their experiences.

Moreover, because American Airlines was accused of racism in the past, they are demanding improvements from the company, as reported by the New York Times.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization, issued a travel advisory to Black passengers regarding the airline in 2017, describing many incidents of discrimination. After the company began to resolve the organization's concerns, which took around nine months, the group decided to withdraw its warning.

In a report by BBC, American Airlines said that it was looking into the claims since these were against company principles. In a statement, it added that they take any allegations of discrimination very seriously.

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