Two Muslim men are demanding an inquiry after claiming their flight was cancelled because staff discriminated against their race and religion.
Abderraoof Alkhawaldeh and Issam Abdallah were on board a Mesa Airlines plane in Birmingham, Alabama, when suddenly all staff were forced to disembark.
"It was the most humiliating day of my life," Mr Abdallah said.
American Airlines, which owns Mesa, said “concerns raised by a crew member and a passenger” resulted in the cancellation.
But in a news conference streamed live on Facebook, organised by the Council for American-Islamic Relations, Mr Alkhawaldeh and Mr Abdallah alleged staff profiled them for their race and religion.
The pair were travelling separately on the flight to Dallas, Texas, but recognised each other from the local Muslim community, when crew announced a delay before takeoff.
Mr Abdallah visited the onboard lavatory soon after, but says upon unlocking the toilet door he saw a flight attendant stood outside “like she was eavesdropping”.
Mr Alkhawaldeh said when the flight was cancelled a short time later, he heard one flight attendant tell a passenger it was for security reasons.
They claim a plain-clothes man approached them when back in the terminal, followed by plain-clothed police officers and an FBI agent, and allegedly took them aside to search their luggage and probe their personal and employment details.
According to Mr Abdallah, the pair were soon released and rebooked on a later flight to Dallas along with all other passengers.
He alleged that the FBI agent told him airline staff had contacted police to say they were “not comfortable flying” with him because, he reports, he “went to the restroom and… flushed twice”.
"I felt [they were] discriminating against my ethnicity, my religion," Mr Abdallah said.
In a statement, American Airlines said: "We're committed to providing a positive experience to everyone who travels with us.
"Our team is working with Mesa to review this incident, and we have reached out to Mr Alkhawaldeh and Mr Abdallah to better understand their experience."
It is not the first time American Airlines has had to answer claims of discrimination. In July a doctor claimed she was “policed for being black” as she was banned from boarding a flight until she “covered up” her shorts.
In 2017 American Airlines was forced to apologise after a flight attendant accused two black basketball players of theft and sent them off the plane.
The same year, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People issued a travel warning for African Americans not to travel with the airline, prompting the company to give all staff anti-racism training.
