Rishi Kapoor calls British Airways racist, asks people to not fly with them

Mumbai: Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor slammed British Airways and called it 'racist' after an Indian passenger and his family were allegedly asked to deboard a flight in the UK. The veteran actor went on to reveal that even his own experience with the airline was not pleasant.

Rishi took to Twitter on Friday to slam the airline and wrote, "Racist. Don't fly British Airways. We cannot be kicked around. Sad to hear about the Berlin child incident. I stopped flying British Airways after the cabin crew were rude and had attitude not once but twice even after being a first class passenger. Fly Jet Airways or Emirates. There is dignity." 

Racist. Dont fly British Airways.We cannot be kicked around. Sad to hear about the Berlin child incident. I stopped flying BA after the cabin crew were rude and had attitude not once but twice even after being a first class passenger. Fly Jetair or Emirates. There is dignity. — Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) August 9, 2018

The incident took place on July 23 when an Indian family was travelling from London to Berlin on a British Airways flight. The development comes after the passenger, identified as A.P. Pathak a Joint Secretary level officer in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, complained that he and his family were discriminated against on racial lines.

Narrating his ordeal in an interview to new agency ANI, Pathak said, "When we were travelling to Berlin from London in British Airways, our son started crying and a flight attendant came and threatened to offload us if our kid doesn't keep quiet. Another Indian family sitting behind us offered the child some biscuits to console him. My wife again put the boy on his designated seat and fastened the seat belt even though he kept on crying.."

"The same crew member came again and shouted at my son that ‘you keep quiet otherwise you will be thrown out’ and (said that) we would be offloaded." The plane then returned to the terminal. The father says that after that security was called in and their boarding passes were taken away and they were asked to deplane.

"My family and the other Indian family, which had offered biscuits to my son, were offloaded.." He recalled that even after repeated requests and apologies, they were offloaded from the flight without any compensation.

Taking note of the incident, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu directed the aviation regulator to obtain a detailed report from British Airways over the incident.