Just when people thought they had seen it all: an irate airline passenger with flowing blond locks and a red mask under his chin, wearing a golden crown made of cardboard, has been hauled off an international flight for launching a racist tirade, which culminated in fists flying and the airline issuing a lifetime ban.
The airline was JetBlue and the flight was preparing to head from Jamaica to JFK airport in New York.
Video shows a man, who for some reason is wearing a paper crown issued by hamburger chain Burger King, hurling racist slurs at a fellow passenger on the New York-bound flight, after accusing her of taking his seat and kneeing him in the stomach.
She replies that he deserved it.
Most passengers on the flight were black and the ranting man in the cardboard crown appears to be white, with a tattoo on the left side of his face.
He repeatedly yells the racial slur commonly referred to as “the N-word”, along with other expletives. When challenged about it, he bellows a bizarre excuse:
“Excuse me, I’m part-West African.”
“I can say n – – – – r anytime I want!”
As the man continues to scream profanities – including the N-word – several other passengers run up the aisle to pounce on him, before being restrained by cabin crew and fellow travellers.
Video ends with the ranter being arrested and hauled off the plane in handcuffs, to applause from onlookers.
Anyone wishing to view the bizarre and sustained outburst, a prime example of how not to behave on a plane during a pandemic (or at any other time), can view the three minutes of madness on the TMZ site below:
https://www.tmz.com/2020/10/23/jetblue-racist-tirade-passenger-n-word-burger-king-crown/
A spokesperson for the airline said later: “We have zero tolerance for racism or harassment, and after reviewing this customer’s abhorrent racist behaviour, we have determined he is no longer welcome to fly JetBlue.”
Edited by Peter Needham
