A petition comparing the recent Ryanair race abuse scandal to the celebrated actions of Rosa Parks has appeared online this week.
It comes in the aftermath of a video posted on social media, which showed the situation on a flight from Barcelona to London Stanstead.
Filmed by a fellow passenger, the clip shows an elderly man hurling racist abuse and insults at an elderly disabled woman sat near him.
He referred to the woman, 77-year old Delsie Eunice Gayle, as an "ugly black b******", and shouted "don't talk to me in a foreign language, you stupid ugly cow", as he tried to get her to move seats.
Alerted to the fact of her disability by the woman's daughter, the man responded: "I don't care whether she's f****** disabled or not - if I tell her to get out, she gets out."
The video, recorded on October 19, has since gone viral, and criticism has been directed at the man - identified as 70-year-old David Mesher - and Ryanair.
Staff on the flight have been criticised for seeming to do little to silence the man, leaving another passenger to try to resolve the situation.
While other passengers called for the man to be removed from the flight, a cabin crew member can be heard saying: "Don't be so rude, you have to calm down."
The Mirror reports that Essex police have released a statement which read: "We have worked to identify both parties involved in this incident and passed this information to the Spanish authorities, who are leading on this investigation.
"Our officers will continue to provide assistance where necessary throughout the course of this case."
The incident has now led to a petition on change.org, calling for the aviation company to compensate Mrs Gayle.
The petition, which has already gained almost 250,000 signatures, also calls for Ryanair to "apologise both directly and publicly" to her.
"Airlines can remove passengers from flights if they pose a threat or are disruptive to other passengers - but they didn’t," it explains.
It also mentions the further consequences of incidents like this in affecting passenger's confidence.
"They should provide assurance that their crew will protect their passengers better - this could mean a review of policies or training," it says.
The petition was started by race equality campaigner Zita Holbourne, who explained that she knows "first-hand the devastating impact racist hate speech and crime and the lack of action can have on individuals and communities".
She further claims that Mrs Gayle and her family "have been treated like second class citizens - nobody from the airline has contacted them since the incident."
"In 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man leading to the Montgomery bus boycott," says the petition.
"63 years later Ryanair stand by whilst white people demand no black person sits next to them."
