Black Woman Alleges Delta Crew Moved Her To Make Room For White Passengers

A Black woman from California has accused Delta Airlines of racial discrimination after she was allegedly asked to move to the back of the plane mid-flight to make room for two white passengers. Camille Henderson of Alameda was traveling to Atlanta with her boyfriend to visit her family when the incident occurred, as per ABC 7.

Henderson was sitting near row 15 window on a flight headed to Atlanta from San Francisco in late January. Two other women, who appeared to be flying together, were sitting in the aisle and middle seats in the row next to her. They claimed they had first-class tickets but couldn't produce them.

"They felt like they were ticketed first-class seats, but they couldn't provide the tickets," said Henderson. She began recording the incident after they went on complaining.

Henderson recorded part of the exchange between the women and a flight attendant. "Unfortunately, my first-class seats are occupied," one woman is heard saying in the recording.

"They are what?" another person is heard saying. "They’re occupied," the woman answered.

Henderson claims that the Delta crew then decided to get the women more space by moving her to the 34th row.

One of the flight attendants proceeds to ask Henderson whether she was flying by herself. When she responded that she was, the attendant was heard saying, "There's a seat back there in aisle 34. It's an aisle seat."

Henderson added that she reluctantly went to the back row. She added that the attendants never suggested the women sitting next to her move despite the fact that they were the ones complaining.

"I don't want to make it a race thing, but instead of asking the two white women that were seated next to me (to move), in an attempt to accommodate them, they basically made me have to move. I just don't know why I had to move because that was the seat that I paid for, that was my assigned seat," the woman told ABC 7.

Henderson added that she did not want to refuse the flight attendants' orders for fear of being labeled "disruptive and potentially being reprimanded."

Though Henderson complained to a Delta customer service representative about the incident, the person maintained that "there was no inconvenience since she was moved to another seat in economy," New York Post reported.

After Henderson went to the media with the complaint, a Delta Airlines spokesperson told ABC7 in a statement that they were "looking into this situation to better understand what happened."

"Delta has no tolerance for discrimination in any form and these allegations run counter to our deeply-held values of respecting and honoring the diversity of our customers," the spokesperson added.