Colorado woman Lakeyjanay Bailey has accused Frontier Airlines of racially profiling her after an employees falsely accused her of trafficking her white four-year-old sister.
As Denver 7 reported last week, Bailey is a 21-year-old Black woman who was traveling with her four-year-old adoptive sister Olivia, who is white, from Denver to Dallas. As she told it, when they arrived at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, they were met with authorities who asked if they could speak with her for a moment.
One of the officers directly asked Olivia “if she knows me and what am I to her, and he asked what my mom was to her,” said Bailey. According to an incident report from the DFW Department of Public Safety, the officers were there because a Frontier Airlines employees requested they meet the two at the gate after a passenger reportedly alleged there could be human trafficking going on. "The whole time they were talking with us, people kept staring at us, whispering and stuff," said Bailey.
Authorities later spoke with Bailey’s mother and a social worker before they verified why the two had been traveling together. "If the roles were changed and it was a white person walking off the plane with a Black person, like a Black child, I feel like things would be different," added Bailey. She and her family are now considering whether to file a lawsuit against Frontier Airlines for racial discrimination.
In a statement, Frontier Airlines confirmed that officers were called because a passenger voiced their concern.
"A concern was raised during the flight by another passenger who was sitting near the woman and child and suspected human trafficking,” the statement reads. “That passenger approached the flight crew with those concerns and subsequently completed a written report during the flight to document her observations. The captain was notified and felt an obligation to report the matter. Air travel is one of the most common means for human trafficking. Race played no part in the actions of the flight crew who were following established protocols.”
