BUSINESS
Flying Nightmare: Inside Details Of George Sam-Korsah’s Harrowing Experience With Lufthansa Airlines’ Racial Bias, Police Intimidation
Details have emerged how Netherlands-based Ghanaian George Sam-Korsah, a private entrepreneur was dehumanized and maltreated by agents of Lufthansa Airlines and constantly being harassed by Amsterdam police after he won his fundamentals rights enforcement case against the German carrier, Lufthansa Group Airlines after four years of epic legal battle.
BIGPEN NIGERIA (https://bigpenngr.com) gathers that in 2021, George Sam-Korsah was denied boarding a flight from Italy to Brussels and the Netherlands without reason, leading to a racial discrimination incident at the Italian International airport.
Determined to enforce his rights, Sam-Korsah had approached the European Court in Amsterdam and eventually won about four court charges against Lufthansa Group Airlines but despite winning the court case against the airline in 2024, he still faced continued harassment from Amsterdam police, including three arrests and mishandling.
“After years of fighting for my rights, I finally have justice. The court’s ruling is a victory not just for me, but for everyone who has faced racial discrimination and police brutality,” George Sam-Korsah, who stays in the Netherlands told BIGPEN NIGERIA during a telephone conversation.
“The police targeted my neck, using chokeholds and knee-on-neck methods. I was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment. It’s a miracle I’m alive,” George said, describing the traumatic experiences.
According to Sam-Korsah, lawyers filed complaints against the police, but “the public prosecution office has delayed judgment, protecting the police and restricting George’s rights, including his license to operate as an entrepreneur”.
“I’m consulting for medical assistance without financial support from the government or city officials. This is victimization by the authorities, showing that freedom of speech and democracy don’t exist in the Netherlands,” George said, highlighting the need for continued activism against racial discrimination and police brutality.
Sam-Korsah has been living in the Netherlands for over 20 years and has never been arrested, nor had any major legal problems until January 4, 2021, when he was arrested and mishandled by the Amsterdam police on three different occasions without any justifiable reasons.
In a bid to enforce his rights, he then sought the State legal aid to support his complaints against the police but was denied with claims that he is not a suspect but a victim and therefore such minor cases do not qualify for the state’s legal aid.
Sam-Korsah, from his hard earned money had to pay an exorbitant legal fees to lawyers to file official complaints against the police for stalking, harassment, intimidation, and physical mishandling.
He believes that his travail in the hands of The Netherlands police including the May 11, 2023 arm choke arrest and ‘knee on his neck’ arrest of september 4, 2023, were all in an attempt to make it impossible for him to go ahead with speaking publicly about his experience and continuing with the lawsuits against the airlines.
According to him, “All of this happened after the 4th of January 2021 racial discrimination incident at the Italian International airport where I was mistreated by airline agents” who eventually called the police to publicly interrogate him, after denying him boarding without any justifiable reason.
Giving a graphic details, he stated that the Lufthansa employee failed to check him in for a flight he had reserved a month prior – a return flight from Italy to Brussels and then to the Netherlands where he resides for over 20 years.
He believes that the airline, Lufthansa who then has appointed a Dutch native as their Chief Financial Officer that assumed office on 1st of January 2021 just three days before the incident are “behind these attacks, using the Dutch authorities” and the police in an effort to silence him for speaking publicly about the issue.
Thus he reportedly used his office as Chief Financial Officer to restrict him from exercising his right to freedom of speech and for protesting against the airlines’ violation of his human rights.
Sam-Korsah would later take the airline and her partners to court on 23rd December 2022 in the Dutch city of the Hague for violation of the air carriage contractual agreement.
He won the case against the airlines in court on 16 April 2024, nearly two years in court (in 2024) and four years after the incident.
Court documents confirmed that he was a victim of the LH system’s malfunction and as a result the court ordered the airlines to pay a principal amount which includes refund of the cost of the ticket for the flight he was denied boarding, to be compensated for his claims as well as, court and all legal fees.
Prior to taking the case to court in 2022, between February and October 2021, the German arbitration board concluded on the matter that Mr. Sam-Korsah was a victim of a racial attack, the board went on to condemn the inappropriate behaviour of the Lufthansa employee.
However Lufthansa Group of Airlines did not act on the recommendation by the arbitration board as it was not a legally binding recommendation, and therefore not enforceable.
“The airline therefore failed to restore customer satisfaction as a result”, Sam-Korsah said, adding that after being adjudged as “victim of the system’s malfunction”, he however was motivated after the arbitration board’s decision and brought the matter before the European court.
Document sighted by BIGPEN NIGERIA revealed that the court ordered Lufthansa to pay Sam-Korsah €275 in principal. Aside from that, the court ordered Lufthansa to pay the legal costs incurred by Sam-Korsah, estimated to date at €244 in court fees owed and €50 in necessary costs incurred, compensate the legal costs between Sam-Korsah and Brussels Airlines and Air Dolomiti in the sense that each party bears its costs.
The plaintiff (Sam-Korsah) had filed for more claims but the court declared itself incompetent to rule on those matters as it concerns jurisdiction. There are three airlines involved so the competent court with the jurisdiction to rule on the matter will be in Italy and Germany respectively. This has opened another door for a fresh lawsuit against the German carrier, Lufthansa, Sam-Korsah said.
The matter, which assumed a different dimension, was charged to court with allegations that the carrier was out to frustrate the case, which could cost the carrier huge sums of money in compensation.
Troubled started in December 7, 2020 when Sam-Korsah made a reservation for flights with the following booking codes VUSQ4C – Outbound (Including Brussels, Belgium to Malpensa, Italy) – VV9VIE – Inbound (Including Malpensa to Brussels via Munich).
Two days before the outbound flight, he visited the websites of all the airlines involved as part of the preparation and printed all the necessary reservation confirmations (documents). He checked in online for the first flight (Air Brussels) and paid for one handbag up to 23kg. On January 4, 2021, he presented his ticket for flight LH 1855 and LH 2292 for boarding at the Malpensa Lufthansa’s check-in point.
He disclosed that he was refused boarding, the carrier claimed that his details were not found in their system, but insisted he had the right ticket. His words: “I was threatened with police when I refused to back off as I was told. After about 30 minutes of heated discussion, finally, they recommended that I go and consult another travel agent.
“At first glance, I thought it was a Helpdesk to help Lufthansa passengers so I went, and when I arrived, I was told I had to pay a consultation fee before they could help.”
“In my mind, I already have the reservation made so I didn’t understand why I had to pay. Because I knew I had to pay for my luggage, I was only prepared financially for just that amount and nothing more. So, I decided to call Lufthansa on my own.
“I called Lufthansa through their number on my confirmed booking printout, and for almost half an hour I was not connected to customer service (I’m a Dutch resident so you can imagine the cost for an international call).”
“Well boarding time was approaching so I went back to the helpdesk and paid for their service (It appeared on my bank statement that the company I paid for was not Lufthansa but rather A.R.E) I came back to continue boarding, at this point I’m short on cash because I didn’t expect to pay any amount to any external-body,” he added.
Continuing, he narrated that he pleaded with the Lufthansa assistant to send him an invoice for the baggage allowance charge because he did not have enough to pay since he had to pay for the services provided by the helpdesk. He further stated that the lady at the helpdesk refused and told him that his luggage would not be allowed on the plane if he didn’t pay right then. He said: “At this point, I began to feel frustrated and didn’t know what to do.
“I felt heavily abused. I have been under attack for almost an hour by the Lufthansa assistants (a male colleague of the lady at the Lufthansa desk joined in and even made a comment saying I was being dramatic, called me names when I told them in an argument over the ticket that I have been travelling for a month to about six different countries on the same trip and never experienced this treatment by any of the airlines, including all the airports at the connecting flights on the same reservation)”
“The situation escalated to a point they eventually called the police with all manner of threats.
“At this point, I was trembling, all eyes on me and everyone watching. The presence of the police even worsened the feeling, I felt criminalised and humiliated, I have witnessed such incidents happening to people of colour around the world in the news and on TV but I could never think it would happen to me.
“After that, I called for help, and money was transferred from my company’s account to me and finally paid for the baggage.
“One could imagine the humiliation as my name was being announced at the airport because I was the last passenger and the flight was about to take off considering I was among the first few passengers that showed up even before the check-in point/ counter was open for check-in and boarding.
“Also, on the flight, I felt I was monitored and isolated, with flight attendants looking over my shoulders throughout the journey. I managed to keep myself calm by forcing myself to read till we finally arrived at Munich airport,” he added.
Sam-Korsah maintained that attempt to file a complaint at the airport service point was unsuccessful due to a lockdown, instead, he was given a brochure with instructions to submit his complaint via email, which he did after arriving in the Netherlands.
However, he was dissatisfied with the response from Lufthansa’s customer service and decided to take the matter to arbitration. Despite initial attempts by Lufthansa to block the arbitration, citing that the reservation was for a business trip and providing details of his company, Gino XXL Entertainment, the airline eventually took his complaints seriously after nine months.
Lufthansa Airlines was yet to respond to the court ruling and no official statement on the George Sam-Korsah’s claims but a visit to the airline’s website shows passenger rights are specified in case “flight has been cancelled or significantly delayed or if you have been denied boarding on a flight for which you have a confirmed reservation, you are entitled to the rights defined in Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, which entered into force on 17/02/2005. The airline on whose flight the disruption occurs is responsible for granting your rights”.