The U.S. Department of Transportation has ordered Delta Air Lines to pay a $50,000 fine to settle claims by three Muslim passengers that they were subjected to discriminatory treatment by airline employees.
In a consent order on Friday, DOT held that Delta violated federalanti-bias laws when its pilots removed the Muslim passengers from two separate flights in July 2016 after the airlines own security offices had given them clearance to travel.
In addition to the fine, the airline must have the flight attendants, pilots and customer service agents involved in the incidents undergo civil rights training.
The department said that the order establishes a strong deterrent against future similar unlawful practices by Delta and other carriers.
Delta disagreed with DOTs conclusion that it engaged in discriminatory conduct, according to a response included in the consent order , but acknowledged that the two incidents could have been addressed differently.
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One of the two cases involved a Cincinnati couple, Nazia and Faisal Ali. The two were not named in the DOT order, but they were identified by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been representing them.
The Alis boarded a Delta flight at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on July 26, 2016. They were traveling home after a 10th anniversary trip to Europe. Another passenger told a flight attendant that the couple appeared fidgety, nervous, and sweating and made the passenger feel very uncomfortable, the order stated. The flight attendant observed Faisal Ali using the word Allah several times while texting on his phone and claimed that he made eye contact with her when she walked by but did not smile. Nazia Ali was wearing a headscarf. Another flight attendant who walked through the cabin said that she saw Faisal Ali changing the screen on his phone when she passed by.
The captain on board the flight looped in Deltas corporate security officer, who determined that the Alis were American citizens who raised no red flags. A Delta supervisor removed the couple from the plane for further vetting. But even after the Alis were cleared for travel, the captain refused to let them back on the flight because the flight attendants were not comfortable having the couple on board.
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It appears that but for [the couples] perceived religion, Delta would not have removed or denied them re-boarding from [the flight], DOT wrote in its evaluation.
The couple flew back to Cincinnati the next day. In a 2016 interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer , Nazia Ali said the experience was humiliating.
We were treated like criminals, she said. I thought, We are American citizens. You cant do this to us.
Watch an interview with Nazia Ali in this WKRC news report from 2016.
","type":"video","meta":{"author":"LOCAL 12","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC673WfesrYoCgG9VsekGlEQ","cache_age":86400,"description":"CINCINNATI (WKRC) - A local couple says they are the victim of anti-Muslim profiling and have filed a complaint against Delta Airlines.\n\nFaisal and Nazia Ali were kicked off a Paris to Cincinnati flight last week after a crew member complained to the captain that she \"felt uncomfortable.\" They are not the first Muslims kicked off planes because people just \"felt uncomfortable.\"\n\nNow, their complaint asks the Department of Justice to make specific guidelines to protect everyone who flies.\n\nMrs. Ali was wearing a traditional Muslim head scarf. The Alis say the incident in the Paris airport ruined their trip to celebrate their 10th anniversary.\n\nFaisal and Nazia celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary July 21 with a trip to London and Paris. They say it was a great trip until July 26 when they boarded a Delta jet in Paris for the trip home. They settled in for 45 minutes and then were interrupted by an American ground crew member who came on board and told them to get off.\n\n\"He said, 'Yes, please gather your belongings. You are no longer going to be traveling on this flight,'\" said Nazia. \"He said, 'To be honest, one of the crew members reported to the captain they didn't feel safe with you guys on the plane.' And I said 'Why?' And he said, 'You guys were on your phone.\"\n\nThey were taken off the plane and questioned by French authorities. They had to catch a flight home the next day. Before they boarded, they talked to a Delta agent.\n\n\"'Do you know what we did wrong so we don't do it again today?' He said, 'You did nothing wrong; that's just the way the world is right now,'\" Nazia said.\n\nTheir situation is one of several involving Muslims kicked off airlines based on crew's discomfort in the last few months. CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has filed a complaint with the Depart of Transportation's Consumer Protection Division on the Alis' behalf. They are asking for DOT guidelines on when for security reasons to remove a passenger, not just based on how they look or what language they speak.\n\n\"They were kicked off simply because the airline crew member didn't like the way that they looked, and they did precisely that,\" said Sana Hassan, a CAIR attorney.\n\n\"And it starts to feel like to the Muslims they have to go to back of the bus, because, if you look like a Muslim, we are not comfortable with you on the plane,\" said CAIR executive director, Karen Dabdoub.\n\nThe Alis are American citizens of Pakistani descent. CAIR says they feel the spike in issues with Muslims on planes is a direct result of the anti-Muslim rhetoric tossed about in this year's presidential election.\n\nThe Alis say they complained directly to Delta Airlines after they returned home and were told they could expect a response in 30 days.\n\nDelta did issue a statement Thursday afternoon on the complaint:\n\nDelta condemns discrimination toward our customers in regards to age, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender. As a global airline that brings hundreds of thousands of people together every day, Delta is deeply committed to treating all of our customers with respect. Delta continues its investigation into this matter and will issue a full refund of these customers' airfare.","options":{"_end":{"label":"End on","placeholder":"ex.: 11, 1m10s","value":""},"_start":{"label":"Start from","placeholder":"ex.: 11, 1m10s","value":""},"click_to_play":{"label":"Hold load & play until clicked","value":false}},"provider_name":"YouTube","thumbnail_height":720,"thumbnail_url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0vbn1QipYl4/maxresdefault.jpg","thumbnail_width":1280,"title":"Muslim couple claims discrimination after being kicked off Delta 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