Monday, April 14, 2008

More tales of British Airways disrespecting Nigerians

Email received in my in box today


My peeps, abeg make una no fly BA again O! What the Nigerian passengers may, or may not have done is a secondary matter. What you need to think about is this - would BA have "emptied" a trans-atlantic flight if a similar thing had happened......I don't think so! Yes, Nigerians can be rude but I mean this is simply ridiculous!

culled from the Mirror

A British Airways captain ordered 136 passengers off his plane in chaotic scenes after they all started complaining to cabin crew.

As the flight waited to take off at Heathrow the row was sparked by the restraint of a man being forcibly deported.

Many were distressed by his pitiful cries of "I go die" and one passenger, Ayodeji Omotade, 39, spoke up on his behalf.

The deportee was taken off the Lagos-bound jet by immigration staff and police.


But five officers returned and arrested Mr Omotade. This outraged the other 135 passengers in the economy class section and they complained to cabin crew.
Amid riotous scenes in the aisles, 20 police officers boarded to calm everything down.
Then the BA pilot took the extraordinary decision to boot off everyone who had witnessed the arrest of Mr Omotade, an IT consultant from Chatham, Kent.

The captain took the view they were all guilty of disturbing the flight, although no more passengers were arrested.

After the economy class section was virtually cleared, the deportee, aged about 30, was brought back on and the flight left.

The passengers were booked on to later flights but Mr Omotade was told by BA staff he was banned by the airline for life.

English-born Mr Omotade, married with a daughter aged four, was handcuffed and kept in police custody for eight hours after his arrest. He has not been charged and is seeking an apology from BA.

He was traveling from Heathrow's Terminal 4 to Lagos for his brother's marriage and had in his luggage the groom's wedding ring, shirt and suit. He missed the ceremony.
He told the Mirror: "There were agonizing noises from an individual being restrained. It went on for 20 minutes.

"I pleaded with the officers and my exact words were, 'Please don't kill him.'
"I was not swearing or threatening. BA staff said the officers were doing their jobs and nothing was going to happen. When he was removed we thought it was the end of the matter.
"But police officers came back and I was handcuffed and dragged off the plane."

He claims his luggage has been lost and £1,600 cash he had for relatives has been taken and not returned.

Scotland Yard confirmed: "A man was arrested for affray and causing a disturbance and was bailed."

Ba said: "Police were called to the BA75 service to Lagos on March 27 after a large number of passengers became disruptive.
Many were removed.

"We take any threats against our crew or passengers very seriously and this kind of behavior will not be tolerated."

I think this one is gathering pace (story also on Chxta and Ijebuman's blogs) and hopefully even if it doesn't cause BA to reform their attitude towards Nigerians at least a boycott will reduce the demand of BA tickets on their Lagos flights (thus leading to lower prices)?

Pls Sign This Petition & Boycott British Airways!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Nigerians_against_BA/

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good day I am so excited I found your site, I really found you by accident, while I was looking on Google for
something else, Regardless I am here now
and would just like to say thank you for a fantastic post and a all round entertaining blog (I
also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to go through it
all at the minute but I have bookmarked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I
will be back to read a great deal more, Please do keep up the great b.


Feel free to surf to my web blog - cityadslive.com

Anonymous said...

Hello! This post couldn't be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this page to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!

Feel free to surf to my blog: solavei cell phone

Anonymous said...

I pay a quick visit everyday a few blogs and websites to read posts,
however this webpage offers feature based articles.


Also visit my homepage :: http://sidebest.com/index.php?do=/profile-33/info

Anonymous said...

Have you ever considered writing an e-book or guest authoring on other sites?
I have a blog centered on the same topics you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information.
I know my viewers would enjoy your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.


Visit my blog The web’s premiere DJ community

Anonymous said...

Heya this is kinda of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you
have to manually code with HTML. I'm starting a blog soon but have no coding expertise so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be enormously appreciated!

Have a look at my blog post; I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift (Kim Viera Cover)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your info. I truly appreciate your
efforts and I am waiting for your further write
ups thank you once again.

Here is my blog post solavei

Anonymous said...

Fantastic blog! Do you have any recommendations for aspiring writers?
I'm hoping to start my own blog soon but I'm a little lost on everything.
Would you advise starting with a free platform like Wordpress or go for a paid option?

There are so many options out there that I'm totally overwhelmed .. Any suggestions? Kudos!

My website - bornatest.com

Anonymous said...

My spouse and I stumbled over here different web page and thought I might check
things out. I like what I see so now i'm following you. Look forward to exploring your web page yet again.

Here is my web site: pregnancy.arcane-software.com

Anonymous said...

Hola! I've been reading your website for some time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Dallas Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep up the excellent job!

Here is my web-site :: The web’s premiere DJ community

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure why but this web site is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a issue on my end? I'll check back later on
and see if the problem still exists.

my web site: The web’s premiere DJ community

Anonymous said...

Excellent way of describing, and good article to get data on the topic of my presentation focus, which i am going to present in institution
of higher education.

Also visit my webpage; www.mysocialitz.com

Anonymous said...

e cig, e cigarette, e cig, electronic cigarette, smokeless cigarettes, electronic cigarettes reviews