A flight was delayed for over an hour when two women refused to fly on the same plane as three men in white prayer robes.
The Thomas Cook flight was preparing to take off from Dalaman, Turkey to London Gatwick on Friday morning when one of the women began a racist tirade against the men, The Sun reported.
Witnesses said a woman who appeared to be in her 30s referred to the robed men as “terrorists” and told staff they were “disgusting” for making her fly with them, adding “it shouldn’t be allowed.”
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Shamea Oldham, who was on board the flight told the Daily Mirror the woman stood at the front of the plane screaming abuse.
“She kept saying she didn’t want to fly with them and refused to let the plane take off with them onboard,” Oldham said.
“She said the other passengers were disturbed to want to fly with them.”
Another passenger, Mario Van Poppel, said via Twitter that all passengers were “united in anger against this crazy racist woman”.
a passenger on our Thomas Cook flight #MT105 from Dalaman to Gatwick refuses to board the plane because three bearded men in white prayer robes are on board. All passengers are united in anger against this crazy #racist woman. It's 2am #fedup
— Mario Van Poppel (@poppelmario) July 11, 2019
Other passengers claimed the woman’s tirade had reduced some passengers to tears.
“The Muslim men were offended but they kept their cool,” Van Poppel told The Sun.
A spokesperson for the airline confirmed the incident and said the two women were removed from the aircraft by police “following offensive behaviour onboard”.
“The safety of our customers and crew is always our first priority and we do not accept this kind of behaviour on our aircraft,” the spokesperson said.
“We are sorry to our customers for the delay this caused to their flight.”
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