A Nigerian woman Queen Obioma was allegedly kicked off a plane after a white passenger complained that he could not fly with her because of her ‘pungent’ odour.
Obioma has now filed a lawsuit against United Airlines claiming that she was humiliated and discriminated against.
The incident happened in 2016 when Obioma and her two children were boarding a flight from Houston to San Francisco for a school-related appointment.
Obioma was heading to Ontario Canada and was on the second leg of her journey when things went sour.
Obioma alleges that she was not allowed to sit in her allotted seat in business class because of a male passenger, when she agreed to sit elsewhere, she then went to the bathroom and on her way back was impeded by the same man whom she then had to squeeze past before making it back to her seat.
A crew member then came to inform Obioma that she was to leave the plane as the male passenger had complained about her body odour.
According to Obioma’s lawyer; “At that point Ms. Obioma was lost, confused and disoriented. Her mind went blank and she was utterly befuddled.”
“Ms. Obioma watched her minor children marched out of the aircraft like criminals, confused and perplexed … She sobbed uncontrollably for a long time.”
Due to the incident, Obioma and her children couldn’t get another flight for 5 hours and therefore were unable to meet up with their appointment and she incurred more expenses.
“United Airlines discriminated against Obioma and her children during the incident on March 4, 2016 at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston because they were black.” her suit against United Airlines read.