ELDERLY PASSENGER CLAIMS AMERICAN AIRLINES CREW BURST INTO BATHROOM AND ACCUSED HIM OF SMOKING

PEOPLE

 

Elderly Passenger Claims American Airlines Crew Burst Into Bathroom and Accused Him of Smoking

By Colson Thayer  Published on November 18, 2025 01:01PM EST

 

An American Airlines passenger is suing the company and multiple crew members claiming flight attendants burst into the bathroom to accuse him of smoking. Now the customer is alleging racial discrimination, seeking damages of at least $1 million.

 

According to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania on Nov. 10, 79-year-old Ali Warisuzzaman, who identifies as “Indian American" and has been a U.S. citizen for 40 years, boarded an American flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix on Oct. 3 to attend his granddaughter’s birthday. Sitting towards the back of the plane, the passenger claims a flight attendant initially ignored him during the first round of beverage service.

 

After asking another flight attendant why he was skipped, the passenger claims he continued to receive “dirty looks” from the former.

 

About an hour into the flight, Warisuzzaman says he went to the plane’s rear lavatory located about two feet away from his seat. Moments later, he claims he heard a loud bang on the door followed by someone asking, “Are you smoking?”

 

After allegedly explaining he doesn't smoke, Warisuzzaman claims the flight attendant he encountered first opened the locked door and peeped inside while the passenger was seated on the toilet. Soon, a third flight attendant and another individual he claims "looked like a crew member,” allegedly opened the door too.

 

“If the aircraft is equipped with audio-visual cameras, one would see that in a matter of one minute, a crew member violently banged and opened [the] lavatory door at least five times. Maybe six or seven times,” Warisuzzaman alleges in the complaint.

 

Warisuzzaman alleges that once he came out of the lavatory everything was normal on the plane. He claims the flight attendants used the “emergency” as an excuse to “harass and humiliate the plaintiff stemming from their racial animus.”

 

When the passenger arrived in Phoenix, he claims he was surrounded by seven to ten “heavily armed policemen." Warisuzzaman believes one of the flight attendants told the pilot to request police upon arrival.

 

After the passenger claims police interrogated him “for a while,” he says he was free to leave and there was no charge made against him.

 

Warisuzzaman is suing the airline and two crew members and the captain on eight counts, including the violation of equal rights, violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and defamation. He is seeking no less than $1 million to be determined at trial.

 

Neither Warisuzzaman nor a representative for American Airlines immediately responded to PEOPLE’s requests for comments.

 

Passenger aircrafts are equipped with sensitive detection systems in lavatories to alert crew to anyone smoking or vaping, though other passengers have reportedly made similar claims that crew members accused them of smoking when they say they were not smokers and didn't have any smoking device in their possession.

 

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, “FAA regulations prohibit smoking, including the use of electronic cigarettes, on board airliners."