The "psychology professor" should not be allowed to remain nameless in all of this. He or she is obviously a foolish bigot who displayed a lack of intellect unworthy of the title "professor". Perhaps future students of this individual would like to vote with their wallets and avoid his or her classes, just as many would like to give their business to any company but Ryanair.

As for the "racist Irish" comments, they are nonsense. The Irish are no more or less racist than anyone else.

Tom Sullivan, Dublin, Ireland

Ryanair needs to pay up and apologise for this unjustice. Sadly, the same thing is happening here in the states where airlines are removing passengers (often of Asian decent) because other passengers express "fear". A congressional bill has even been passed to protect passengers from lawsuits in cases like this were a passenger comes forward. In addition to Ryanair being held accountable, the passengers who came forward should be accountable too.

Mike
http://www.extremetourist.com/

Mike, Melbourne, Australia

Sadly this kind of paranoia is now a routine cause of embarrassment for us visible minorities. Years ago upon entering France I once encountered a similar incident whilst intending to visit the picturesque Loire valley. I was convinced that this would be impossible in my own country, & I used to point this example to my work colleagues.
However, just such a lesser incident took place on my return from Marrakesh where all us Britons laughed and joked together regardless of creed or colour. My travelling companion & I were the only visible minority faces in a huge line of fair-skinned Brits, I even thought to myself it would be so obvious & comical if we were taken aside for a security check! Guess what, we were as the lines of passengers passed by & the questioning was facile. It almost appeared as if to reassure our fellow passengers that the security people were doing their job. I am in international commercial banking, but my companion was a police officer & ex-army BAOR.

A Proud Briton, London, United Kingdom

One must always remember we are living in troubled times.It is sad that the real terrorists of today disguise themselves amongst our society and have become a Trojan horse. This spreads the fear so many people feel and are constantly reminded of especially when they travel by plane with the seemingly paranoid security measures. With this background,unfortunately, some completely innocent people are bound to be sometimes under suspicion.
It is always a difficult call but at the end of the day,the pilot is in charge of his plane, his crew and his passengers and it is his and only his responsibility to make the final decision. Whilst in this case it was a false alarm with all the implications that may go with it, one can also reflect on how many people would still be here today if the pilots on 9/11 had been able to have and exercise, on that occasion, similar foresight.

Pedro Tam, London, UK

Lance of Crawlry UK

How very true! I have had the unfortunate experience of flying Ryanair.
Believe me the first time WAS and IS the last time I would ever use Ryanair.
Would I recommend them - Not on your nelly!

Get your act together Ryanair - at least have the decency to APPOLOGISE to these men!

Bolshy, Alentejo, Portugal

Of course, if they had been terrorists, and the pilot had ignored the warning...then everyone would still be insulting him for ignoring the 'intuition' of the professor. It's understandable that his immediate response was to get them off the plane, just in case. However, once the checks had been done they should have been allowed back on. That's the real issue - not the mistake of an overly suspicious psychologist.

Meg, Pembs,

While many white Britons may be in denial about it this case is indicative of the endemic racism which is still such a strong undercurrent in British society

Cameron Gill, Bridgetown, Barbados

This is an utter shame and is vaguely similar to the apartheid regime. This just shows, how certain social prejudices cannot be eradicated, this is just a tip of the ice-berg!
They really should have been awarded more!!!

Shehnaz Bazeer, London,

Where are all those politicians who came out in support of Lewis Hamilton? Doesn't this case deserve their support?
Capatain Dumblop should have removed the people who refused to fly with these men not the other way round!! I hope the Captain and the Stewardess are now looking for new jobs but I doubt it.

George, Glasgow, UK

Mark of LA... if you read and understood the article you will have realised that it was not (in your words) "many people" afraid but only 2 families and a stewardess. So please don't try to exagerate that aspect.

Personally, as a passenger I would have be far more concerned about the irrational decision making of the captain and stewardess.

When the first passenger raised his concerns about the 5, the captain correctly asked that further checks be carried out.

HOWEVER, once those concerns were shown to be unfounded the 5 should have been permitted to travel. Other passengers who wished to deplane should have been permitted to do so but on the clear understanding that they would not be compensated in anyway. The stewardess should have been fired for gross misconduct.

Lance, Crawlry, UK

Captain Dunlop is no Captain if he bows so easily to the whims of his passengers - but then who is to say he too is not just a self preserving bigot.
The award given the members of the band is a disgrace and pretty indicative of the prevailing attitudes towards ethnic minorities - they are either terrorists or asylum seekers and their pain and suffering, occuring as it did as a result of what is essentially a hate crime, is not worth much more than a thousand bucks.
Meanwhile the bigots and witchfinders get their way and live to 'terrorise' innocent passengers another day.

ola, Bristol,

Personally i will never fly Ryanair, this incident just highlights how bad they have become,

Parli, Reading, UK

maybe it was out of necessity rather than want,Paul Downes

iain, finsbury,

I'm both appalled and yet simultansously not surprised that this has happened. I'm also quite disgusted at the lack of financial compensation, for an incident that these men are never going to be able to forget and is likely going to have long-lasting, and damaging effects on their well-being. Likely, this is going to resurface every time they get anywhere near an airport in the future. Ironically, a psychology professor should have been aware of this before making such accusations. '1984' passed 24 years ago, and yet we seem to be heading backwards to an Orwellian future.

Karen, Bristol,

Ryanair are only making matters worse by appealling. They got off lightly and should be grovelling in their apologies. Unfortunately these "budget" airlines are so arrogant that they do not know how to apologise when they make a mistake.

I would recommend using BA or another quality carrier, who these days are just as cheep but without the hastle and rudeness!

Dino, Spain,

In answer to Richard, 'Real Travellers' know that you get what you pay for, which is why any sensible traveller wouldn't go near these a RUBBISH airline like Ryan Air with a barge pole!!

Paul Downes, Milton Keynes, Bucks

Fear in the mind is overcome - Fear in the heart is forever.

DanO, Mount Vernon, USA

Ryanair need to sort out their PR work a little I think, on the one hand they chuck people of a flight in Italy for being coloured. And then they insult the Italians by using a picture of the rubbish crisis in Naples in order to promote cheap flights. No wonder their profits are going down.

Rich, Milan, Italy

I find it sad that so many people on that flight felt threatened by a group of black men who were minding their own business and did nothing wrong except take their assigned seats.

The incident was a classic case of discrimination. The steel band was the injured party, and no amount of money will ever compensate them for the humiliation, insult and inconvenience. The real crime is that minorities must navigate these insults to a lesser degree in their lives on a daily basis.

When people are forced off a jet at gun point for being black it reminds of a remark by the comedian Dick Gregory who said if you are black and living in the states and you are not paranoid then you really are crazy.

Mark, Los Angeles, USA

Reply to Richard, of Dunstable, UK, who wrote:
<<When you go to a fast food restaurant and they have spat in your food before you get it just because you are white, will it be funny then?>>

You use this gross example of spitting in someone's food as a sort of threat, but I don't get it.

If you see someone spitting in your food, then you won't eat it.
If you are unaware that someone has spat in your food, then so what?

This is a weirdly stupid threat to make, imo. What are you trying to say?

Barbara Suzuki, Manila, Philippines

If another passenger said they didn't want to fly on the same plane as these men then that passenger should have been allowed to get off the plane. The men should have stayed on. Imagine if someone said they did not want to be on the same plane as a Sikh or a Hindu, they would rightly be denounced as a total prat and told to like it or lump it. Indeed I recently saw a religious man on American Airlines objecting to being sat next to a woman and they quite rightly said well the flight is full, you can ask another passenger to swap with you or you can get off the flight, but they never suggested removing the woman!

I do not see that anyone else should have to make way for the bigotry and intolerance of paranoid morons. Those Ryanair passengers should take a long hard look at themselves.

Lizzie, London,

Ryanair doesn't reflect anything on the Irish. I doubt the pilot was Irish or anyone involved in this was Irish, so please don't accuse the Irish because this 'airline' behaves in a terrible way. The airline is an international affair.

Mark, Cardiff, Wales

Yeah make a joke of these racists. Psychlogy professor who got his degrees at Woolworths. Ryanair showing the world how racist the irish are and there is so much uproar over the Lewis Hamilton incident.

This is much worse because this is not unusual. The police, store detectives, teachers, lecturers, airline staff.

Not paranoia just sad people who believe they are better than others. Oh, I forgot Whites cannot be terrorists can they. There wars are all legitimate, it could only be blacks. Silly me.

Ok, before you say it, "you people are all so sensitive". When you go to a fast food restaurant and they have spat in your food before you get it just because you are white, will it be funny then?

Richard, Dunstable, UK

Another sad reflection on our society i feel. Firstly that Ryanair are fighting the decision when they should be awarding more compensation out guilt and sheer embarassment. Secondly that the other passengers, basing their accusations on nothing more than the fact these guys were not white, managed to read their clearly innocent actions as being suspicious. It just shows how plain stupid some people are.

Joe, Bristol, UK

Just what the hell are real travellers. I dislike Ryanair immensley and believe they will fall from grace soon. Victims of their own arrogance. But honestly, make some sense man.

David O'Sullivan, Cork,

"A spokesman for Ryanair said last night that it would appeal against the decision."

A spokesman for me said last night "I will never fly Ryanair by choice if that's how they treat innocent people."

Kay Tie, York,

Well, they were partly to blame for wanting to fly for a firm of jokers like Ryan Air!! Real travellers wouldn't go near a two-bit firm like them.

Paul Downes, Milton Keynes, Bucks