http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=3310620Racism in the Sky
PHILADELPHIA-August 2, 2005 - Action News has an exclusive report about a different kind of **** at 30 thousand feet in the air. An African-American couple was terrified by a passenger and what he made them endure.
It happened on a US Airways flight from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. Police say what the couple had to endure during their five and a half hour flight is what you might expected back in the days of the segregated South, not in the first class section of a major airline in 2005.
Lisa Collins/Cheltenham, PA: "It's a totally frightening experience, its a totally new experience, never have I experience anything like this."
Lisa Collins and her husband, longtime radio executive E. Steven Collins are still shaken by the experience on US Airways Flight 46 from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. They were returning from Senator Vincent Hughes' wedding to actress Sheryl Lee Ralph. They were sitting in the first class section when a man who was sitting in the seat directly behind them, identified by police as 47-year-old Robert Baldwin of Blue Bell began an unrelenting litany of racial epithets.
E. Steven Collins/Cheltenham, PA: "He was saying the reason US Air is going out of business--and then he said it -- *@!# -- in the first class section. I couldn't believe that I heard him say that because other people sitting around us heard it."
But the Collins say it was to be only the beginning of what turned out to be their nightmarish flight. He kept kicking the seat and even placed his bare feet on Lisa Collins' head rest right above her head.
E. Steven Collins/Cheltenham, PA: "The flight attendant saw this, I'm calling her 10 or 15 times throughout the flight, the flight attendant came down and again in a more forceful way said to him 'Sir, you have to put your feet down.'"
The Collins say he continued to spew racial slurs even after someone admonished him.
Lisa Collins/Cheltenham, PA: "The thing that's frightening about this is you're 30,000 up in the air and there's nothing that you can do."
E. Steven Collins/Cheltenham, PA: "Here's my wife and I feel like I should be able to protect her but at the same time, post-9/11, you can't just yell in the plane 60,000 or 30,000 in the air, you can't do that."
When they arrived in Philadelphia the Collins were surprised the police had not been called. Fortunately Collins called Commissioner Sylvester Johnson and police took action against Robert Baldwin.
Inspector Bill Colarulo/Philadelphia Police: "You know, this guy was sitting in the first class section but if you ask me, he had no class whatsoever. If you read what this guy did to these people, it's just unconscionable in the year 2005 that we have people that still act like this."
Baldwin has been charged with simple ****, harassment and ethnic intimidation, which is a felony. As of Monday night, he remained behind bars at Southwest Detectives. The Collins also believe the airline should have done more to address the terrible ordeal that went through.
(Copyright 2005 by WPVI-TV 6. All rights reserved.)
He deserves a lot of props for stayin classy throughtout that entire ordeal, because I know many of us would of knocked dude a couple hours before landing cause that's just straight childish and foolish.
Wow, that's pitiful and horrible at the same time.
Horrible that this white supremacist was even allowed on the plane. Pitiful that this fool just sat their and cried about it.
Yea, but I'm sure if he would've turned around and punched that fool in his face he would have been called "ghetto" or "unclassy."
