Ryanair Breaks Silence Over David Mesher's Racist Abuse Filmed On Flight

Ryanair has broken its silence over the racist abuse filmed on board a flight and issued a statement making a series of points to “clarify” the matter. 

On Friday the company stressed it did not wish to compromise an investigation currently underway by police in Essex and Barcelona but said it was responding to “inaccurate and unfounded media reportage”.

It did not name either passenger, though both have been identified as Delsie Gayle, 77, who was abused on the flight, and David Mesher. 

The statement said:

– Ryanair only became aware of this video late on Saturday 20th October, which showed that racist abuse had taken place during a verbal argument between two passengers seated adjacent to each other during the boarding of this flight on Friday 19th.

– Ryanair immediately reported this video, and the racist abuse, to Essex Police in Stansted Airport at 9am on Sunday 21st October. We provided the police with a copy of the video, and relevant details of the two passengers involved. These prompt actions disprove the false claims that Ryanair did not respond “quickly” or “appropriately” to this video. To allow the police investigation to occur, Ryanair declined to comment to media despite the considerable and inaccurate media commentary.

– Ryanair’s Spanish cabin crew were aware of an argument between these two passengers during the boarding process, but were not aware of, as they were not present when, racist comments that were made by the male passenger towards the female passenger. While these events were videoed by another passenger on a mobile phone, this video was not shown to cabin crew until after landing in London Stansted. Ryanair did not become aware of the contents of the video until late on Saturday evening when it gained widespread coverage on social media.

– As the cabin crew believed they were dealing with an argument between two passengers, they followed company procedure, to defuse the argument, and separate the passengers by offering to move one to alternative seating. In this case, the female passenger was moved at her request, to a seat adjacent to her daughter who was also travelling on this flight. After moving the female passenger, both passengers were asked if they were “OK”, and both confirmed that they were. As far as the cabin crew were concerned, that was the end of the matter, and since there was no threat to aircraft safety, the issue of offloading one passenger did not arise. The Captain was not informed of any argument between the two passengers, and nor were airport security in Barcelona alerted, because as far as the cabin crew were concerned, the verbal argument had been defused.

– Ryanair immediately wrote, both by email and letter, to the female passenger at 11am on Sunday morning, apologising sincerely for what happened on board the aircraft and advising her that the matter had been reported to Essex Police at Stansted Airport. We also invited the passenger to contact the airline if they wished to discuss the matter further. The claim made in the media in recent days, that Ryanair did not contact or apologise to the female passenger, is untrue.

– Ryanair will be happy to answer any further questions or queries that may arise as soon as Essex Police and the Barcelona Police authorities have concluded their investigations and have decided what action to take.

– Ryanair has a long record of not tolerating disruptive or abusive passenger behaviour, and we have been to the forefront of calling for greater powers and more effective Government follow-up in cases of passenger disruption on board flights.

Ryanair’s head of communications, Robin Kiely, said: “We again extend our very sincere apologies to this passenger for the regrettable and unacceptable remarks that were made to her by an adjacent passenger, and we believe that, by reporting this matter immediately to Essex Police, and by apologising in writing to this customer early on Sunday morning, Ryanair treated it with the urgency and seriousness it warranted.

“We trust that this statement will address the inaccurate media coverage of this incident over recent days, and that the legal rights of both passengers will be respected, while the police services in Essex and Barcelona conduct their investigation of this matter, with Ryanair’s full co-operation and assistance.”