A Black woman claims she was kicked off a Delta Airlines flight simply for making eye contact with a white flight attendant, according to a federal discrimination lawsuit.
Lawsuit Details Alleged Racial Discrimination
Teresa Hudson Jordan, a frequent Delta flyer and first-class passenger, filed the lawsuit after an incident on March 27 while traveling from Lexington, Kentucky, to New York City with her teenage daughter.
According to the complaint, after the plane doors closed, Jordan leaned over to speak to her daughter. As a flight attendant passed by, she looked up and made eye contact but said nothing. The flight attendant, a white woman referred to as “Flight Attendant Doe” in the lawsuit, allegedly responded with an angry outburst.
“Without any provocation whatsoever, Flight Attendant Doe began screaming at Ms. Jordan, yelling: ‘Don’t look at me like that! Don’t eye me up and down. If you can’t comply with my commands, then I’ll turn this plane around and we can go back to the gate!!’” the lawsuit states.
Flight Attendant’s Actions Lead to Jordan’s Removal
Despite Jordan’s repeated assurances that she would comply, the flight attendant allegedly continued her outburst. Witnesses described her behavior as aggressive and unwarranted.
“I’ve never seen or heard a flight attendant act so aggressively towards a passenger. It was disturbing and unwarranted,” one bystander reported to Delta. Another compared the flight attendant’s treatment of Jordan to that of a “dog or a slave.”
The complaint alleges that the flight attendant then went to the cockpit and falsely told the crew that Jordan was disruptive. As a result, the pilot turned the plane around, and a gate agent removed Jordan and her daughter from the flight.
Jordan’s Legal Action and Delta’s Response
Jordan’s lawsuit describes the incident as a stark example of racial discrimination in air travel, stating, “This case epitomizes the revolting reality that, even in the year 2025, Black Americans continue to endure the indignity of ‘Flying While Black.’”
Her attorney, Jon Norinsberg, called the incident “absolutely outrageous” and pointed out that multiple eyewitnesses came forward to support Jordan’s account.
Delta responded to the lawsuit, stating, “While we have no specific comment on this pending litigation, Delta has zero tolerance for discrimination of any form.
This Article Includes
