US airways compensates Sikhs for discrimination

Three Sikh musicians, removed from a flight at the Sacramento airport in California about a year ago, have received an apology and an undisclosed amount from the US Airways under a settlement with the airlines. Sikh organizations had termed the incident as of racial profiling and discrimination.

The three eminent Sikh musicians are, Davinder Singh, Gulbag Singh and Iqbal Singh known as classical religious performers. The incident is reported to have occurred on November 15, 2008 when they were ordered to leave the plane they had boarded at the Sacramento airport for Salt Lake City for a performance. "However, airline employees did not provide any explanation as to why they were being removed, but they were told, through a Punjabi interpreter, that the pilot would not fly with them on board," a media release said.

"After suffering humiliation in front of other passengers, the musicians were each handed a US $ 5 meal voucher and forced to delay their travel until the next day. They experienced no problems boarding the Delta flight on which they were rebooked," it said. "To date, the airline has failed to provide any legitimate security concerns justifying the removal. The removal was apparently sparked by passengers' and crew- members' fears of the musicians based on their ethnic and religious appearance, the United Sikh said in a statement.

"In fact, a letter from US Airways indicates that the flight's pilot had not made the decision to remove the musicians, but acquiesced after they had already been escorted off the plane, and without basing the decision on any actual security concerns," the United Sikhs said. Prior to the settlement and at the urging of United Sikhs, the airline updated its training materials and distributed a bulletin reminding its employees of the company's anti-discrimination policy. This settlement comes just after US Airways' recent settlement in a federal lawsuit in which six Muslim religious leaders alleged that they had been removed from a flight based on their religious and ethnic backgrounds.