Boarding an aeroplane and taking a trip to another country can be a stressful experience. But what if you have to take a flight with a racist woman aboard who harasses the other passengers and flight attendants? That’s what happened last Friday on a routine EasyJet flight from Belfast to Manchester. An elderly woman, who appears to be in her 50s, was caught verbally abusing her fellow passengers as well as the staff aboard, too. The video below may be distressing, so do be warned before watching it.
Some of the language that the elderly woman uses is bleeped out for obvious reasons, though we’ll try and disseminate the incident in full. First things first, the short snippet of footage begins on a flight from Belfast to Manchester. The clip is taken from the perspective of a passenger/witness sitting behind the racist woman in question. “Who you talking to? You know what? I don’t like you and I don’t like what you say. You’re a nasty person.” fires the woman to the passenger sat in front of her as she points at him. “You’re a f***ing Ukrainian!” she yells.
A passenger nearby, meanwhile, chimes in with, “Would you just shut up. There are kids on the plane. Give it a rest.” To this, the woman asks, “So, he can swear but I can’t?” A flight attendant can be then seen speaking to the woman in a bid to try and placate her. “I didn’t hear anybody else swear.” he calmly tells the woman.
The altercation continues to escalate, with the woman hurling expletives. “You just swore again. How many times do I need to tell you?” the member of staff declares. “I don’t give two f***s!” responds the lady, who is getting increasingly irate. The flight attendant leans in saying, “Stop your swearing, I’ve told you several times. We’ve got children sat behind you.”
It’s at this point where the clip cuts to police boarding the plane. It’s difficult to discern what is being said, but the woman is seen being escorted off the plane at the end of the footage to the delight of the passengers all around.
A witness who was aboard flight EZY714 spoke out about the woman’s disruptive behaviour, via SWNS. Shauna Corr, 44, described the incident, saying:
The lady involved was a few rows in front of me – I felt very sorry for the couple sat behind her and children on the flight. Her language was atrocious and racist, she was making very derogatory comments about people including muslims – at one stage she even struck out at Ukrainian people. She was just kicking off but I think the stewards handled it really well – it was quite disgusting behaviour.
Shauna Corr, Witness aboard flight EZY714 from Belfast to Manchester
Notably, a spokesperson from EasyJet made an official announcement concerning the incident: “Flight EZY714 from Belfast City to Manchester on 17 January was met by police on arrival due to a passenger behaving disruptively onboard. EasyJet’s cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and acted quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers was not compromised at any time.“
Fortunately, the irate woman who was at the heart of the racist altercation was arrested by Greater Manchester Police on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly during the flight. Officially, the police released a statement, saying: “Upon the plane returning to Manchester Airport, a woman in her 50s was arrested on suspicion of being drunk onboard an aircraft and was taken into custody where she remains for questioning.”
