A man who filmed a racist incident on board a Ryanair flight has defended his actions claiming that he recorded the incident to let the world know what happened.
David Lawrence filmed the moment a man racially abused an elderly black woman on a flight from Barcelona to London Gatwick on October 19.
The airline has faced a backlash after it moved the woman and allegedly left the man in his seat.
Mr Lawrence said he chose to film the incident as “now the world knows” what happened.
Footage of the incident posted to his Facebook account has been viewed some 4.5 million times.
He told BBC Breakfast: “I had to make a difficult decision at the time because if I had stepped in I don’t think you would have seen the footage that I captured.”
The video shows a man shouting at a woman telling her to move seats while her daughter tries to stand up to him, telling him her mother is disabled.
He said: "I don't care whether she's f****** disabled or not - if I tell her to get out she gets out."
Mr Lawrence says he was not confronted by any other passengers.
He added: “In fact, one of the passengers whilst I was filming basically said to me don't you think you're being a bit childish by filming this.”
The elderly passenger known as Mrs Gayle claims she "has not been contacted by the airline."
Her family said they are "surprised, disgusted and hurt" that they have not heard from the company since the incident, the Huffington Post reported.
Ally Murphy, a former cabin crew supervisor who also appeared on the show, said Mr Lawrence made the right call in deciding to film the incident.
"It is great that David did film that," she said. "This happens every day in the community and people need to step forward and say this isn't right."
"But as a cabin crew member it is not great when people pile in and try to take things into their own hands," she added.
Ryanair tweeted on Sunday that it had reported the incident to Essex Police.
It added: "As this is now a police matter, we cannot comment further."
A spokeswoman for Essex police said on Sunday: "Essex Police takes prejudice-based crime seriously and we want all incidents to be reported.
"We are working closely with Ryanair and the Spanish authorities on the investigation."
Additional reporting by PA.
