WASHINGTON, D.C.–Discrimination has gotten people thrown off of planes and that practice should be checked, said Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.), during a hearing by the House Transportation Committee. The hearing was on what can be done to improve the way airlines operate and how people can benefit from that possible improvement.

“There is very little required from airlines to report when they remove someone from an airplane. At present, the DOT (Dept. of Transportation) only reports on discriminatory removals when the passengers complain,” said Carson. “This disproportionately impacts American Muslims, Sikhs, and Arab-Americans.”

Carson contended that some of the passengers he described had been stereotyped and removed from flights for “simple acts such as speaking Arabic or wearing hijab”.

The hearing was attended by, among others, Joe Leader, CEO of Airline Passenger Experience, which studies just that, passenger experiences.

“Airlines do collect incident reports any time there is a confrontation with a passenger or an incident with a passenger that leads to removal from an aircraft,” countered Leader. “We need to do better about underlying, unseen bias and airlines continue to focus on training and awareness to not allow that to ever impact decision.”

Leader said he believes the level of sensitivity and training conducted by airlines gets better each year.

 

 

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