American Airlines suspends crew after several black passengers removed from flight

American Airlines has suspended several employees after a lawsuit was filed against the airline for racial discrimination.

The lawsuit was filed in May by three passengers who were among eight black men removed from a plane in January. The men were all strangers and were not seated next to each other, they say.

“We are holding those involved accountable, including removing team members from service,” the airline said in a statement to BBC and AP News.

CEO Robert Isom condemned the January incident in a letter to employees on Tuesday, June 18, adding that steps would be taken to prevent discrimination.

“I am incredibly disappointed by what happened on this flight and the failure of our procedures,” Isom wrote. “We failed in our obligations and failed our customers in this incident.”

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The CEO announced the creation of an “advisory group” to focus on improving the experiences of black passengers and encourage the reporting of incidents of discrimination.

American Airlines will train its employees, create a long-term diversity plan and review operations manuals.

“Please be assured that we stand firm in our commitment to work with the NAACP and other civil rights organizations to learn from this incident, listen to you, our team members and our Black customers, and restore trust and provide the best possible experience with American,” the letter said.

On January 5, eight black men were ordered off an American Airlines plane “for complaining of body odor,” the lawsuit states.

In court documents obtained by PEOPLE, three of those men — plaintiffs Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph and Xavier Veal — alleged that American Airlines “committed blatant and egregious racial discrimination.”

“In fact, it appeared to the plaintiffs that American had ordered all of the black male passengers on Flight 832 from the aircraft,” the complaint states.

“We take all allegations of discrimination very seriously and want our customers to have a positive experience when they choose to fly with us,” American Airlines told PEOPLE at the time. “Our teams are currently investigating the matter as the allegations do not reflect our core values ​​or our purpose of caring for people.”

The lawsuit also accuses the airline of having a “history of discriminating against and being intolerant of black passengers (and other passengers of color).” The lawsuit refers to a 2017 NAACP travel warning against the airline that was lifted in 2018.