The British Airways deplaned a senior Indian bureaucrat and his family last month minutes before take-off because his three-year-old son was crying onboard.
The official was travelling to Berlin from London on July 23 when he experienced what he described as "racial discrimination" and "rude behaviour" by the British Airways.
In a letter to civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu on August (3), the senior bureaucrat said another Indian family sitting behind them was also deplaned for allegedly offering biscuits to the child in an attempt to console him.
"We had to make our own arrangements for staying and travelling to Berlin the next day by paying a very hefty amount," he said, according to news agency Press Trust of India (PTI). The other Indian family was given tickets for a flight the next day. However, they weren’t provided any accommodation.
The bureaucrat, who is with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, alleged that once the plane returned to the tarmac, security personnel took their boarding passes away.
A British Airways spokesperson said they have launched an investigation.
"We take such claims very seriously and do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We have started a full investigation and are in contact with the customer," the spokesperson said.
Narrating his family's ordeal, the officer said his wife had managed to calm their son when an "aggrieved" crew member approached them and started scolding the boy.
"With this unusual behaviour of the male crew member, my son got terrified and started crying intensively. My wife again put the boy on his designated seat and fastened the seat-belt, even though he kept on crying intensively being in a terrified state of mind due to the scolding by the male crew member," the officer wrote to Prabhu.
The crew reportedly shouted: "You bloody keep quiet, otherwise you would be thrown out of the window."
Kulsuma Aktergetty images