This conviction comes after two incidents, one on July 26, 2016, the second five days later. Each time, the passengers had been expelled from the plane, with no re-boarding.
After accusations of discrimination against Muslim passengers, the American airline Delta Air Lines was sentenced on Friday January 24 to a fine of 50,000 dollars (45,350 euros) by the American authorities. Since these two cases, Delta says it has improved its security procedures “to make them more collaborative and objective”.
In a consent order to settle this dispute with the affected passengers, the United States Department of Transportation indicates that it has established that Delta “engaged in discriminatory practices” and had violated anti-discrimination laws by ordering three Muslim passengers to leave planes.
In an incident on July 26, 2016, a Muslim couple had been expelled from a Delta plane at the Parisian airport of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle because a passenger had told a hostess that their behavior put him “very uncomfortable”. The woman was wearing a veil and the man would have hidden something in her watch, had assured the passenger. The hostess said she saw the man send messages with the word “Allah” by telephone.
The captain then spoke with Delta security, who said the couple were US citizens returning home and were not the subject of any specific reports. However, the pilot refused to let them back on board. For the Department of Transport, the captain did not follow Delta’s safety protocols and it is established that “without religion [du couple], Delta would not have evacuated it and would not have forbidden him to re-embark. “
The second incident concerned a Muslim aboard a flight from Amsterdam to New York on July 31, 2016. Passengers and hostesses complained about him, but a security officer had found him nothing suspicious and the service of Delta’s security had verified that the man was not the subject of any specific report. The captain had nevertheless returned his aircraft to the terminal, had the passenger expelled and his seat searched.
For the Department of Transport, the commander did not follow the security procedure and the passenger evacuation “was discriminatory”. Delta did not admit to having discriminated against, but “does not dispute that each of these two incidents could have been handled differently”, indicates the order.
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