‘She was inebriated’: Mass. family says they were target of racist airport rant in Los Angeles

DRACUT, Mass. — They travel the world about 10 months out of the year, and that’s exposed the Taufiq family to dozens of cultures. But it wasn’t until last week that the family encountered “The Ugly American.”

“We were coming back from Cancun,” said Nicole Taufiq who, along with her husband, Perez, runs a photography business specializing in high-end and destination weddings. “We were on our way back for Thanksgiving and also it happened to be my husband’s birthday weekend.”

The family arrived in Los Angeles on a United Airlines flight that was only slightly eventful.

“We found out one of our seats was upgraded,” Nicole said. “So we decided to give it to our eleven-year-old son. And so he sat there and we sat a few rows behind him.”

No other family member was upgraded because the flight was full.

“During the flight, my husband decided to go and check up on him,” Nicole said. “And that’s when he met ‘said person.’”

‘Said Person’ is an unidentified woman who, Nicole said, was sitting in the same row as her son -- and spoke rudely to her husband. But the real action started when the woman boarded the same shuttle bus as Nicole, Perez and their three young children.

It started when the woman told her children, excited to be driving past planes on the tarmac, to shut up, Nicole said. That enraged Perez.

“He yelled back at her, don’t (expletive) talk to my kids like that,” recalled Nicole. “She was seated and we were standing, and her husband came up right in front of my husband’s face and said, don’t talk to my wife like that.”

That’s when Nicole pulled out her phone and started recording the encounter.

“Sometimes, when people know they’re being filmed they are more measured in their behavior,” she said. “So that was the hope.”

It partially worked. The woman’s husband pulled up his hoodie and slinked away, Nicole said. But his wife kept going -- verbally assaulting the family about their Indian heritage.

“It was clearly evident to us that she was inebriated,” Nicole said. “And as my husband was trying to speak to her, she was on this rant and I knew that she was not going to stop. So my first thought was, my gosh, my kids are hearing all of this.”

Nicole’s second thought was why nobody on the bus tried to stop the woman.

“I know it’s an uncomfortable situation,” she said. “People don’t want to get involved. But it takes our voice being louder than theirs to drown this stuff out.”

Someone -- perhaps the bus driver -- called security. The shuttle was stopped and the woman escorted off. At that moment, a Good Samaritan did appear -- a man who assured the security guards that the Taufiqs weren’t at fault -- and that he didn’t feel safe with the woman on the bus.

“And he said, look these are good people,” Nicole said. “I just expected someone else to stand up for us at that moment and I’m glad that gentleman did.”

Boston 25 News could not confirm with United Airlines whether the woman has been placed on their internal ‘no fly’ list. The airline had nothing else to say about the incident.

“Had I known we could have pressed charges immediately, we would have,” Nicole said. “And then we heard nothing from United. Three days ago, my husband submitted an official complaint online to United and we got a response and they said there’s not much they could do.”

There’s not much the Taufiqs can do until they find out who the woman is. Nicole said they were disturbed to learn that the woman wrote in to a Los Angeles TV station after the video was broadcast and told lies about the encounter.

Nicole said her husband did not hit the woman while removing a suitcase and did not get up to retrieve a bag during approach in violation of flight attendant orders.

“At no point did he have any racial slurs toward her,” she added.

Nicole said it’s discouraging to hear the woman is trying to justify her behavior.

“There’s no room to go there,” she said. “If you had an issue with my husband and he did the so-called thing she says he did, then she should have reported him.”

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