An internal investigation has revealed no justification sufficient to publicly defend removing eight black men from an American Airlines flight to New York on the basis that one may have had unacceptable body odor. Now CEO Robert Isom has apologized for the incident and vowed to change the culture at AA to prevent repeat incidents.
How American Airlines CEO Is Talking To Employees About Recent Incident In Which Eight Black Men Were Removed From Flight
Last month, a lawsuit was filed against American Airlines by a trio of black men, claiming racial discrimination and guilt by association, after eight black passengers, none traveling together, were removed from a flight in Phoenix after a white flight attendant complained of body odor.
You can read all the details here, but someone actually decided it was a good idea to remove all the black men from the plane, even though they were not seated near each other or traveling together, because one person complained about the smell of one of them.
As you might imagine, even though AA eventually let all eight men back on the flight, the damage was done…a lot of it…and the story has gone viral, prompting the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to issue a fresh warning to American Airlines.
In an attempt to shift the narrative and show that it is taking corrective action, Isom sent a memo to staff today that was shared by JonNYC:
It is important we address an unacceptable incident where eight Black passengers were temporarily removed and reboarded on one of our flights.
I am incredibly disappointed by what happened on that flight and the breakdown of our procedures. It contradicts our values, what we stand for, who we are and our purpose of caring for people on life’s journey. We fell short of our commitments and we failed our customers in this incident. As a team, we have committed to listen, learn and grow — and together, build a welcoming culture for our team members and customers. This work is driven by accountability and our leadership attributes — a core tenet of which is caring.
https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/1803123644672909815
To help ensure repeat incidents do not occur, AA is taking four immediate steps:
- Creation of an advisory group
- We are establishing a new oversight and excellence advisory group with a focus on improving the travel experience for Black customers. Building off the achievements of our previous community council, this group will help us maintain standards, define processes and escalation procedures, measure our actions and improve feedback loops to ensure that we fulfill our commitments to Black travelers. The group’s oversight will be crucial in promoting accountability and driving continuous improvement, guiding our efforts to deliver an inclusive and positive travel experience
- Strengthened oversight and reporting mechanisms
- We are reviewing and enhancing our internal reporting processes to ensure swift and transparent handling of future incidents and customer concerns related to allegations of discrimination or bias. Team members will be reminded and again encouraged to come forward with confidence, knowing their voices will be heard and we will respond with diligence and fairness. These incidents will receive multi-level review including cross-organizational assessment and escalation to ensure they are properly investigated and actioned
- Evaluation and improvement
- We are reevaluating our policies, practices, protocols and organizational culture to identify areas for growth and improvement. We are also reviewing our operational manuals, making improvements and providing clarity – with special attention directed at situations that may result in the removal of passengers
- Education
- To enhance our annual diversity, equity and inclusion education series, The Power of Inclusion – Winning Together, we are launching new training for our team members that will move beyond education and focus on real-world situations to help recognize and address bias and discrimination and make the right decisions for our customers and colleagues
And there is more to be done:
But there is more to be done. Cedric Rockamore, our Chief Diversity Officer, will provide you with our comprehensive plan and the work we will be doing over both the near- and long-term.
CONCLUSION
American Airlines is understandably and justifiably taking the recent removal of eight black passengers seriously, telling employees that such conduct was unacceptable and that new oversight, education, and advisory groups will help to avoid repeat incidents.
image: American Airlines
If it really was unacceptable, where are the public firings? Those FAs responsible for this should be shunned from the entire American workforce
Yeah lets just cancel them and delete them from employment. Let them move in with their parents or live on the streets.
Isn’t that what happened with you?
Nope, I don’t work in the service industry thank God. I’m happily employed but unlike our nasty friend Derek, I don’t believe people should be banned from employment.
Furthermore, none of us know exactly what happened, we only know what makes it to Twitter and corporate press releases. Saying that anyone should be “shunned from the entire American workforce” is nothing but typical busybody Karen talk.
Sure, ok, if you say so…
AA admitted there was an incident of overt racism
You think that is acceptable in corporate America?
I’d say the exact same thing if it was the other way, and I have many times. I am 100% opposed to affirmative action
I certainly hope that you get cancelled and shunned from the entire American workforce.
why do I get the feeling you ar e not even in the work force, but are instead collecting welfare checks, Chi?
This is partially why I always dress up whenever I fly because of a similar incidents I talked about on here and on flyertalk. It’s just sickening that this is still happening in our country despite the progress we made since Jim Crow. As MLK Jr said, we’re supposed to be judged on the content of character, not by skin.
@Malik … +1 . well said .
So , unethical rotten behaviour results in … wait for it … “Creation of an Advisory Group” , and refer the issue to a DEI program . Reads like the lawyer-prepared testimony of the Ivy League university presidents : ( legal mincing words ) .
Nothing about changing unethical behaviour into ethical behaviour .
Nothing about The Golden Rule . Nothing about The Ten Commandments . Nothing about our nation being founded under godly principles .
You mean the separation of church and state?
@Aaron … With respect . The problem with separation of religion and state is the neglect of morality . I would rather have a moral religious person as a neighbor , than a secular person with unknown morality . The response by AA does not address the moral issue , and cleverly sidesteps an apology , so we cannot discern if they are sincere .
A similar situation occurred when a group of orthodox Jewish people were traveling to Hungary for a funeral , and Lufthansa did not allow the group to connect at FRA .
@Aaron … because the Lufthansa incident had been recorded , each passenger received a settlement of $ 21,000. , inclusive of attorney class action fees . The offense of the many was that “some” of the pax did not wear a mask , and “some” prayed in the galley hallway area . All were denied by Lufthansa for the behaviour of the “some” .
I expect that AA will be paying in excess of $ 21,000. to each of the pax in this matter , if AA settles . A sincere apology or mea culpa might have alleviated this .
A similar case but not the same.
Also not sure what is has to do with the issue of separation of church and state…
So your religion is the reason you keep making homophobic, racist, xenophobic, etc comments? The separation of church and state exists for a reason. Also there are many people who are secular in their life but are good people and many who are religious and not good people, and vice versa.
This whole response is pretty much damage control 101.
He says what happened violated their procedures. That means the employees responsible weren’t doing their job as has been laid out in American’s manuals.
The problem with this form of damage control is that he’s basically admitting American is biased against African Americans.
The proper solution would have been to have terminated the employees involved for violations of AA policy and racial discrimination. A quick and public firing along with a public pronouncement that AA does not tolerate discrimination in any form would have resolved the crisis.
If I were an African American this whole response would make me less likely to fly AA. Especially because it seems like they haven’t held anyone accountable and a lot of his response is just feel good damage control nonsense.
@121Pilot … +1 . Their whole response is an example of non-rational stupidity from in-house lawyers .
Not even an Apology … merely an expression of “disappointment” .
While I believe that we should not discriminate against any race or religion, I believe that we should discriminate against those who show up smelly to the flight.
Take a shower and change your clothes before a flight to show your sensitivity towards others.
Exactly this.
If it had been one passenger, then yeah, that tracks. But 8 people on the same flight?
Are we still throwing the race card out in America in 2024?
Considering how racism still exists in America in 2024…
If they or anyone smells of “stinkweed”–aka skunk> Its is very unpleasant and lasts a long time.. They should stay off the plane till the smell dissapates.
Yes, I consider it one of the most offensive smells and if one of the black dudes smelled like weed, he absolutely should have been thrown off.
But not all of them – they were not even sitting near each other.
How about instead of thousands of hours of more of these renewed training sessions that no one wants to attend (buts it’s easier than a regular work day and there’s free lunch) AA focus on MEI, not DEI… applying – Merit, excellence and intelligence in all aspects of business.
They started these sessions on DEI and recognizing prejudice you might not be aware of over 5 years ago….why do they think more money spent on more lessons and bureaucracy is going to fix things?
@Desertfox … +1 . Because merit , excellence , and intelligence is the antithesis of DEI ?
You really have no idea what DEI is all about. At all.
Sure he does little Aaron. The purpose of DEI is to hire unqualified people based on their skin color, or gender, or sexual orientation over more qualified individuals lacking a grievance category. It is BY DEFINITION anti-meritocratic, anti-excellence, and malicious.
But lets hear you gaslight us about how we are wrong. Go on, do it now.
Aw, the little right winger learned a new word, “gaslight”…is that the new conservative talking points strategy to discredit DEI? it sure sounds like it.
I don’t need to discredit DEI Little Aaron, it does that just fine on its own.
And yes, gaslight, a form of lying, of which leftist cretins like you are experts and get triggered when people call them out, little Aaron.
The blacks love to play the victim 100% of time.
Strange that there is no video of this incident when videos exist of every outrage, semi-outrage and non-outrage in the U.S. I mean every single one. Except for this. Like I said, strange.
Not true, there are many stories Matthew posts about that do not have videos (see the recent one about a child spitting on passengers as one example).
I simply don’t believe it happened as it’s being reported. Too many people involved, too many witnesses who for some reason aren’t around. Something probably happened, but eight black men scattered around the aircraft being kicked off one by one? No way. I also believe the executive made this grand apology to shut up people who would take advantage. It doesn’t cost him a nickel and it beats having Al Sharpton setting up camp outside corporate headquarters. This whole thing doesn’t pass the smell test, if you’ll pardon the expression.