A family is accusing British Airways of racial discrimination after employees at the Schiphol Airport reportedly blocked them from boarding a flight to London.
Kiran and Dignity Mojo were with their 3-month-old baby when they were stopped from boarding a flight from Amsterdam on July 20 even though a “white Englishman” in a similar predicament was allowed to travel, the couple said in footage of the incident.
“We are in direct contact with our customers regarding this issue,” British Airways said Thursday in a statement to Atlanta Black Star. “We’re taking this extremely seriously and are currently conducting a thorough investigation with the ground handling agents and Schiphol airport to fully understand what happened.”
The Sun News website obtained the footage of the incident.
“This man has got a ticket. He hasn’t checked in,” the mother can be heard saying in the video. “I don’t understand why we aren’t being cleared.”
British Airways gate staff members called the police on the couple, and they escorted Kiran and Dignity Mojo, and their 3-month-old baby, away from the scene, according to The Sun.
The news outlet reported that flight delays at Schiphol resulted in the Mojo family not getting boarding passes but that airport management allowed them to get through security and to the gate.
Another passenger, Joshua Arthur, documented the incident, according to The Sun.
He wrote: “Due to flight delay, a couple and their three-month-old baby hadn’t checked in yet, which resulted in them not getting their boarding passes.
“The same thing happened to an English man. The airport staff understood the situation and let them all through security anyways.
“However, at the boarding gate, the British Airways workers let the English man on the plane, but wouldn’t let the couple and their baby board – even though the airport staff had already let them through security without a boarding pass.
“Us, passengers filmed what happened at the boarding gate for evidence. When the British Airways workers found out they threatened us by saying that we weren’t allowed to board the plane, unless they saw us delete the video.”
In a statement, British Airways said, “We are in direct contact with our customers regarding this issue. We’re taking this extremely seriously and are currently conducting a thorough investigation with the ground handling agents and Schiphol airport to fully understand what happened.”
A police spokesman for the officers at Schipol addressed the conduct captured on camera: “This video only shows a small part of the incident. What was not caught on camera is that this individual had received multiple verbal requests to stand further back. When he failed to comply…the [police] pushed him away.”
