Last Tuesday (Aug. 30), a white chemical engineer named Zachary Easterly had one too many drinks before boarding a flight in Philadelphia. While on the plane, Easterly went on a racist and homophobic rant. What’s even more shocking is as passengers recorded the meltdown, he announced exactly where he worked.
Yesterday (Sept. 5), the New York Post shared that Easterly has since been fired from his position at pharmaceutical and biotech company GlaxoSmithKline. In one clip shared on Twitter, a Black airline staff member asks the now-unemployed man to leave the flight. “You gonna kick me off the f**king plane in front of all the f**gots?” he asks. The woman calmly asks him to grab his bags. As he incoherently searches several overhead bins for his luggage, he mentions that he’s “a white male that picked a black bag because [he’s] racist.”
Another flight attendant joins the search for his bags to try and quickly get him off the flight. “F**k you, too,” Easterly tells a passenger. As several airline employees attempt to locate his carry-on, he says his luggage is “a better bag than most of y’all can afford.” After finding his black bag, he walks to the front of the flight and shares that he hopes all of the “liberal f**gots f**king crash the f**king plane.”
A disgusting homophobe gets kicked off his flight from Philadelphia for harassing the person seated beside him. The man has a huge meltdown on the way out bragging about his job at GlaxoSmithKline as a chemical engineer… Probably not for long sir. pic.twitter.com/NVir4Oj4Hn
— 🥀_Imposter_🕸️ (@Imposter_Edits) September 2, 2022
Before exiting, he announces that he works for GlaxoSmithKline. A passenger asks if he can repeat himself and he does, even louder so all can hear. Easterly yells that the business is “one of the fifth f**got companies in the world.” According to the outlet, a second video shows Easterly being escorted through the airport after being removed from the flight. In it, he reportedly hurls the N-word at Black employees and threatens to shoot them with his pistol.
Following the rant, the London-based pharmaceutical business released a statement condemning Easterly’s actions. “At GSK, diversity, equity and inclusion is embraced and celebrated and we are committed in policy, principle and practice to maintaining an environment which prohibits discriminatory behavior and provides equal opportunity for all persons,” the company said.