Airline to pay calypso band kicked off plane

LONDON — A British judge has ordered budget airline Ryanair to pay $7,850 to members of a calypso band who were ordered off a plane at gunpoint after another passenger said they were acting suspiciously.

Five members of the London-based Caribbean Steel International band were aboard a flight waiting to go from the Italian island of Sardinia to London on Dec. 31, 2006, when a passenger alerted the crew.

The band members were sitting separately on the plane, even though they had been together in the departure lounge, the passenger reported.

The men were removed from the plane by Italian police with guns drawn. They were later cleared by airport security, but the pilot refused to let them back on, citing the anxiety of the other passengers.

District Judge Roger Southcombe ruled Tuesday that the men had been unreasonably removed from the plane. He awarded them $1,570 each.

Southcombe said the damages reflected the band members’ “embarrassment at being the only black persons removed from the aircraft at gunpoint for no just reason, their inability to be with their families and friends on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day [and] the overnight stay in the cold in Liverpool.”

The men were flown to Liverpool and spent the night of Jan. 1 outside the bus station.