FORT WORTH, Texas — Three Black men said they were "humiliated and traumatized" after being targeted and removed from an American Airlines flight in January, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.
The three men, who were not traveling together, allege they were removed from a flight from Phoenix to New York after a white flight attendant complained of an unidentified passenger's body odor. The men were eventually allowed back on the flight after airline employees learned there was not another flight available to rebook them on, according to a press release from the men's lawyers.
"American Airlines singled us out for being Black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us. Clearly, this was discrimination,” the three plaintiffs, Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph, and Xavier Veal, said in a statement.
American Airlines officials in a statement said they were "currently investigating the matter" and the allegations "do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people," the airline said in a statement responding to the lawsuit.
"We take all claims of discrimination very seriously and want our customers to have a positive experience when they choose to fly with us," the statement said.
The lawsuit alleges that on Jan. 5 the three plaintiffs boarded an American Airlines flight. They were not traveling together nor were they seated together, according to the release. Before takeoff, an American Airlines representative told the three men and five other Black men to leave the plane.
The lawsuit alleges that the airline removed every Black man on the flight.
The airline representative told the men that they would not be allowed back on the plane and would need to be rebooked. The lawsuit alleges that after demanding an explanation, the representative said that a white male flight attendant complained of an unknown passenger's body odor, according to the release.
The representative said they did "not disagree" when the plaintiffs pointed out that it seemed they were targeted for their race. By the time American Airlines reversed their decision, the flight was delayed by over an hour, the release states.
“What happened to the plaintiffs strongly suggests that American Airlines racially profiled them,” Susan Huhta, partner at Outten & Golden and attorney for the plaintiffs said in a statement. "If American Airlines received a complaint about a Black male passenger with offensive body odor, but could not verify the complaint, the solution should not have been to eject eight separate Black men from the plane."
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that American Airlines has a history of discriminating against Black passengers, according to the release.
American Airlines is currently the target of several other lawsuits including one related to underage girls allegedly being filmed in an airplane bathroom and another related to the death of a 14-year-old boy.
In the bathroom filming lawsuit, American last week walked back claims made by their legal team that blamed a 9-year-old girl for allegedly being secretly recorded.
The court filing had alleged that the girl should have known the airplane toilet contained a recording device.
Following online backlash following coverage of the filing's language, American said the filing was made in “error.” The company later last week also switched legal teams.