A black Jamaican who lives overseas is fuming over what she regards as the door of racial victimisation being opened to her by Germany-based airlines Condor.

The woman, Sharon Roch, who is in the island for her grandmother’s funeral, said it was the first in all her travels that such a serious act of “racism” had been meted out to her by an employee of the airline.

Roch, who is now a citizen of Switzerland, told the Jamaica Observer that last Wednesday she boarded her 9:25 pm flight at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James, en route to Germany, where she would catch her second flight to her home in Geneva.

After boarding the plane and finding her seat which was by the window — usually the most sought after position by travellers — she noticed a group of five women who were also travelling.

“I sat down in my seat where there was a group of five white ladies travelling together. One of them was about to sit beside me but then refused, remarking that she does not want “to sit with this black woman and that she would never sit with this black woman”.

Roch said the woman could be heard speaking German when she instructed the flight attendants to call the pilot.

That was when things took a dramatic turn, Roch said, as the Caucasian pilot, after being summoned, instructed Roch to get off the flight. She then asked him to provide her with a reason(s) for her to leave while remaining seated.

An aggrieved Roch told the Sunday Observer that at this time she noticed security guards were also waiting to take her off the plane.

“I didn’t get off because I didn’t know what I did. So I [again] asked what is the situation. ‘Can you explain to me?’ Roch lamented.

It was at that point that the security guards intervened and asked passengers who were seated behind her if they were having any issues, but they replied that they did not.

The women, who according to Roch, were black, were eventually moved to the front and then the pilot returned.

“They moved them up the front because they (the white women) didn’t want anyone down there because they need just them to be on the back to “shi-shi”, she said, noting that the white women got up and sat where the other black women were removed from.

This, Roch said, was indicative of just how much the white woman insisted that she would not fly beside her.

Despite the white women moving, the pilot still demanded that Roch get off the flight.

“I began speaking in French and then the pilot said, ‘Don’t speak to me in French because ‘I don’t speak French!’ So I said okay, let me speak English’ I get to the point and I say what is the problem?’

“He said ‘just get off here,” the frustrated woman further related.

Adamantly, she said, she continued sitting as they were still unable to tell her why she should leave.

“They are telling me to get off and I refused because I paid for my flight and know where I am going. I am a Jamaican, why are they in my land? I have my rights here too,” she expressed.

The police were called in and an exasperated Roch said she decided to just leave with them. She said that whilst making her way off the plane, however, she asked the law enforcers the reason for her leaving.

“They said they don’t have a report against me. They didn’t understand nothing, they just heard to get a lady off the flight.

“I sat there like a dog in the street while the police talking to my husband in Switzerland saying it’s a racist thing, it’s racism,” said Roch.

She said at the time the airport was closed and her nephew who had transported her to the airport was already in Kingston so she had to wait a while for him to return for her.

Superintendent in charge of the Sangster International Airport Police, Paul Stanton, when contacted by the Sunday Observer countered Roch’s claim and said that the police did not respond to a racist problem but to the problem caused by an unruly passenger.

“We were told that she was not behaving properly and that is a common call we get almost every day. Unruly [can] mean that they are cursing and/or not abiding by the instruction of the flight crew and, under the Civil Aviation Act, they have the power to ask us to remove passengers from flights,” said Stanton.

Meanwhile, maintaining that there was no report, Roch said she went to the Kingston head office of InterCaribbean Airways on Thursday, where she spoke with two representatives from Condor Airlines who said they knew nothing of the incident and encouraged her to explore her legal options.

“They called in Montego Bay, they didn’t have a report. So they [said that they] don’t know where to go from there.

“In Germany, my aunty went to Condor and they said they didn’t hear of somebody being taken off the flight.”

Roch said she also informed the agents that when she arrived in Jamaica on that same airline her luggage was missing for a week and when eventually located, she realised that some of her things were missing.

She said she was instructed to give a written account of what took place with the impression that she would have been able to leave on yesterday’s [Saturday] flight.

On Friday when she returned to the office, her report was faxed to Germany and she spoke with her consulate in Switzerland explaining her dilemma.

“I spoke with a representative and he instructed me to get out of here now,” said Roch. However, her plans of leaving on Saturday were thwarted after she was informed that the company was unable to find her a seat for that flight and that she would have to wait until next week Wednesday to leave, as flights depart the island on Wednesdays and Saturdays to Germany.

She said she was also told that she would have to stand the cost of the flight.

Efforts by the Sunday Observer to speak with the agency that represents Condor were unsuccessful as the receptionist said that no one was available to speak on the matter.