Police Investigating White Man Who Screamed Slurs at Black Passenger on Ryanair Flight

Essex Police said Sunday that they are investigating a Friday incident in which a white man went unpunished for yelling vicious slurs—seen in a video of the incident that has since gone viral—at an elderly black woman during the boarding process for a Ryanair flight. “Essex Police takes prejudice-based crime seriously and we want all incidents to be reported,” the department said, according to a report from BBC News. “We are working closely with Ryanair and the Spanish authorities on the investigation.” In the video, the unidentified man can be seen calling the woman sitting in his row for the Barcelona-London Stansted flight “sickly,” “fat,” and “ugly,” and yelling at her daughter when she comes to her mother’s defense. When the situation escalates, he yells, “Don’t talk to me in a f--ing foreign language, you stupid ugly cow!” A flight attendant reportedly then asked the woman if she would like to change seats, not the abusive passenger—and when she did change seats, the passenger had a row all to himself. In a statement to the BBC, Ryanair apologized for the incident and its lack of action: “We operate strict guidelines for disruptive passengers, and we will not tolerate unruly behavior like this. We will be taking this matter further, and disruptive or abusive behavior like this will result in passengers being banned from travel.”