A FAMILY claimed they were discriminated against after British Airways blocked them from boarding a flight home from a holiday in Amsterdam.
The airline is now investigating the claims after staff at Schiphol Airport refused to let a young couple and their baby board a flight to London Gatwick.
The family from London got through check-in and security without boarding passes but were stopped at the gate from getting the Amsterdam to London flight on July 20.
But the family – backed up by a witness – say a “white Englishman” was allowed to travel despite not having a boarding card.
BA gate staff even called the police, who escorted Kiran and Dignity Mojo, and their three-month-old baby, away from the scene.
It is understood flight delays at Schiphol resulted in the Mojo family not getting boarding passes, but airport management allowed them to go to the gate where it was expected they would be given passes by BA.
Fellow passenger Joshua Arthur documented what followed.
He wrote: “Due to flight delay, a couple and their three-month-old baby hadn’t checked in yet, which resulted in them not getting their boarding passes.
“The same thing happened to an English man. The airport staff understood the situation and let them all through security anyways.
“However, at the boarding gate, the British Airways workers let the English man on the plane, but wouldn’t let the couple and their baby board – even though the airport staff had already let them through security without a boarding pass.
“Us, passengers filmed what happened at the boarding gate for evidence. When the British Airways workers found out they threatened us by saying that we weren’t allowed to board the plane, unless they saw us delete the video.”
The video shows the young couple and their three-month-old baby visibly distressed.
The mother, cradling her baby, shakes her head saying: “I just – this man has got a ticket, he hadn’t checked-in. I don’t understand why we are being…”
The father then interjects: “They are kind of displacing us, as if we are the criminals.”
He then turns to the BA gate staff and says: “Listen, we are all human beings here.”
The mother then points to the other man who hadn’t checked-in saying: “Excuse me, this man hadn’t checked-in either.”
The father then says: “This is discrimination.”
A police officer can be seen walking towards the young couple.
Another video shows an airport policeman saying to another passenger: “I am now asking you nicely to move.”
They are then seen pushing the passenger backwards.
The incident has angered many people in the comments.
Alpha_kirsten_naidoo said: “Disgusting behavior from @british_airways. Absolutely terrible how this s*** is still happening in this day and age, don’t know how we can all work together and unite and s* when we have to see this, and reprimand this behaviour.”
Fiji_loving added: “@schiphol @british_airways appalling behaviour and handling of this situation.”
Passenger Joshua Arthur today believes the young couple were racial discriminated against.
Joshua said: “The only main difference between the young family and the white English man is, race and maternity. Other than that they are in the exact same position.
“It is therefore natural for me to think that the young family was racially discriminated.”
Kiran, an NHS pharmacist, said she has found the experience to be humiliating.
She said: “This entire experience has left us mentally exhausted and quite frankly traumatised and humiliated. We were treated in such an inhumane, degrading and disrespectful way in front of a plane full of passengers waiting to board.
“I pray to God he [The baby] won’t remember this level of discrimination.”
BA today said they have launched an investigation into the incident.
A BA spokesman said: “We are in direct contact with our customers regarding this issue. We’re taking this extremely seriously and are currently conducting a thorough investigation with the ground handling agents and Schiphol airport to fully understand what happened.”
A spokesman for the police at Schiphol said they were aware of criticism of officers captured in the footage.
He said: “This video only shows a small part of the incident. What was not caught on camera is that this individual had received multiple verbal requests to stand further back. When he failed to comply…the [police] pushed him away.”
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It’s not the first time airlines have been accused of being racist.
Earlier this year, an American Airlines cabin crew was filmed threatening a family.
While an easyJet passenger was left mortified after a cabin crew burst in on him on the toilet.