A Nigerian woman and her children were kicked off a United Airlines flight after a fellow passenger complained that she had a “pungent” odour, according to a racial discrimination lawsuit filed against the company.
The incident involving the passenger, a white male, happened when Queen Obioma, a Nigerian citizen, and her two children were boarding a flight from Houston to San Francisco. The family had flown from Lagos, Nigeria, and were on the second leg of a three-flight journey to Ontario, Canada.
Later, before take-off, Obioma went to use the bathroom. On her way back to her seat, the same passenger was standing in the aisle and blocking her from getting to her seat, the lawsuit says. She said “excuse me” three times, but was ignored. After several minutes, Obioma managed to squeeze her way to her seat.
But just after she sat down, a crew member told Obioma to go outside the aircraft, where another employee told her that she will be removed from the flight. The lawsuit says the pilot had personally requested that she be removed because the male passenger, who was not identified, had complained that her smell was “pungent,” and he was not comfortable flying with her.
Obioma explained that she was taking her children to school in Canada for the first time, and that they had appointments they could not miss. Despite her situation, crew members refused to let Obioma back onto the aircraft and removed the entire family from the flight.
“Ms. Obioma watched her minor children marched out of the aircraft like criminals, confused and perplexed … She sobbed uncontrollably for a long time,” the complaint says, adding that the children, who were seated in the economy cabin, were humiliated.
The mother and her children waited for five hours before they could get on another flight and missed their scheduled appointments. Obioma also incurred more expenses, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit is just the latest black eye for United when it comes to customer service issues.
In April 2017, a viral video showed Chicago airport security officers forcibly dragging a passenger from a flight. The removal of David Dao, who was seen with a bloodied mouth in the video, resulted in the firing of two airport security officers and suspension of two others. Dao reached an undisclosed settlement with United a few weeks after the incident, according to the Associated Press. Last month, one of the fired security officers, James Long, sued United and the city of Chicago, claiming he wasn’t properly trained to deal with the situation and that he had been defamed, CBS reported.
Then in July, a passenger had to hold her 2-year-old son in her lap for four hours because the airline had sold his seat to a standby passenger.
And in March, a passenger’s 10-month-old puppy suffocated to death after a flight attendant forced the owner to place it in an overhead compartment.
United Airline stopped its non-stop flight from the United States to Nigeria in June 2016 citing poor results.
In a memo obtained by Per Second News, United cited poor financial performance and weakness in the energy sector for ending the route.
“After careful analysis, we have decided to exit the IAH-LOS (Houston Bush Intercontinental-Lagos) route and redeploy the Boeing 787 aircraft where it can capture more profitable demand.”
“The IAH-LOS route has been underperforming financially for several years,” United added. “Because of its importance to key Houston-based customers, we continued to invest in it; however, the recent downturn in the energy sector has caused these customers to spend less on travel.”
United Airlines’s media office did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.
Leave a comment