The daughter of a disabled elderly woman who was seen being racially abused by a man on a Ryanair flight on Saturday has spoken out.
In a video filmed by a passenger, which has since been viewed millions of times, the man can be heard threatening the woman for being seated near him, while also shouting at her, "Don't talk to me in a foreign language, you stupid, ugly cow!"
The incident took place before the flight departed Barcelona for London.
The woman's daughter has since responded to the incident, saying the racist tirade against her began because the 77-year-old, who has arthritis, took time to move out of the way for the man to get to his seat, the BBC reports.
She says her mother, a Jamaican migrant now living in the UK, had been on holiday to mark one year since the death of her husband.
"I know that if I was behaving like he was - or any other black person for that matter - police would have been called and we would have been kicked off the flight," she said.
"Mum's really feeling upset and very stressed about this situation, on top of the grief she's already experiencing. As for me, I'm upset about the whole thing too - the fact that the passenger wasn't taken off the plane and how the situation was dealt with."
The woman's mother moved seats and the flight took off as scheduled.
After mounting criticism over the incident, Ryanair said in a tweet that they were aware of the video and the matter has been referred to Essex Police.
"We operate strict guidelines for disruptive passengers and we will not tolerate unruly behaviour like this," the airline told the BBC.
"We will be taking this matter further and disruptive or abusive behaviour like this will result in passengers being banned from travel."
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