A group of Americans claims that Aeroflot sent them to India instead of New York because of their skin color.
'31.03.2018'
Source: Fox News
Russian airline Aeroflot returned five US citizens of Asian descent to India instead of New York because of their color, writes Fox News.
In Aeroflot, the citizens of America were promised that they would be “deported” to India if they did not return to India.
The incident occurred on January 7. The JFK airplane on the flight New-York during the docking in Moscow was unable to continue the flight due to weather conditions.
Affected US citizens have requested alternative flights, but Aeroflot said that there is no room. At the same time, the airline offered alternative flights to other US citizens with fair skin from the same flight.
Indian citizens of Indian origin were offered a return flight to India or “deportation”, as they did not have transit visas, and according to the law of Russia, passengers can stay in the country without visas only for 24 hours.
“Although a representative of the embassy has repeatedly asked to speak with representatives of Aeroflot in order to rectify the situation, the company's employees refused to speak to him, instead repeating the threat of deportation to India,” the complaint said.
Five passengers finally boarded a flight to India, "fearing for their safety, because after repeated threats from Aeroflot, they had no other choice."
Return also obliged about 20 other passengers who traveled from India.
After returning to Delhi, passengers found out that there would be no Aeroflot flights from Delhi to New York within a week. Four out of five passengers spent thousands of dollars booking a Qatari airline’s other flight to return to the United States. Another passenger waited for the Aeroflot flight.
After returning to the United States, passengers turned to a law firm and wrote a complaint to the US Department of Transportation.
“We clearly fell short of our usual high standards of service in this incident over two months ago, and we immediately contacted passengers and apologized. However, our internal investigation showed that discrimination was not the cause of the incident, ”the Russian company said in a comment.
