FlySafair

FlySafair captain throws passenger off the plane after racial threats

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Last week a flight of South African airline FlySafair got severely disrupted. In a facebook movie you can see that an alleged racist and a female passenger are in a heavy discussion with a few black passengers, they are indicating that they don’t feel safe anymore. To the delight of other passengers,  the captain forced both the male passenger and his female companion to step off the plane.

The incident took place last week on a flight from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth. The man called his black fellow passenger an “a ** hole”, after the debate began to escalate. Some other passengers on the plane tried to defend the victim, and the white man responded with “you are all the same.”

The pilot of the flight arrived at the scene to calm the situation. “You are required to keep us safe,” said the woman behind the camera. “I do not feel safe with this kind of aggressiveness on our plane,” she reacted.

FlySafair spokesman Kirby Gordon responds: “We know that there was an altercation between two passengers on flight FA232 on Friday, April 7,”. “We are still waiting for the authorities so that we can give them the information they need to solve this case. The pilot of the aircraft is required to take the final decision if there are potential threats to flight. Safety is and always will be our primary concern. ”

Carl Niehaus: These are exactly the kind of racist incidents that we do not need. I do however want to commend the cabin crew for the manner in which they handled the situation, and for so many of the passengers – black and white – who rejected this kind of racism.

This post was published on 14 April 2017 22:13

Bart Noëth

Working for 25 years in the aviation industry, I changed my career and became a firefighter/EMT in 2021. I like to spend my free time with my two sons, girlfriend, family and friends. I love to travel, wine and dine and support my favourite football squad KV Mechelen. Once an Ironman 70.3 finisher and dreaming of completing a full distance.

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Bart Noëth

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