A British Airways stewardess sacked for filming a racist video where a colleague mocked Asian passengers by making slant-eyed gestures and putting on a Chinese accent has been set up by a co-worker with a long-running vendetta against her, a friend claimed today.
Holly Walton and Lauren Bray have both been dismissed from the airline after the clip emerged on TikTok.
But a source close to Ms Bray, 28, from Crawley, West Sussex, says that the clip in which Ms Walton appears to mock Asian passengers, is more than two years old and has been manipulated by a colleague with whom she has a long-running dispute.
They claimed that Ms Bray has reported the colleague to Sussex Police – and said they uploaded the video to TikTok and maliciously linked Ms Bray’s name to it.
Speaking exclusively to , Ms Bray’s friend said she is appealing against her dismissal – and accused BA of making a ‘rash decision’ without conducting a proper investigation.
Holly Walton appears to make a slant-eyed gesture as she mocked Asian passengers by putting on a Chinese accent
Ms Walton allegedly made the video at the luxury Trade Winds hotel in Antigua with colleague Lauren Bray when the pair were said to have been between flights
Speaking exclusively to , Lauren Bray said she is appealing against her dismissal – and accused BA of making a ‘rash decision’ without conducting a proper investigation.
‘The video is fake. It’s a fake TikTok account’, the source close to her said. ‘It’s all false and has nothing to do with Lauren.
‘The clip and photos that have been manipulated are from 2019 and 2022.
READ MORE: SACKED BRITISH AIRWAYS CABIN CREW PUT ON CHINESE ACCENT TO DEMAND ‘GIVE ME WINE’
‘This is horrible and is not as it seems. It wasn’t put on TikTok by Lauren or Holly. It’s a fake account on TikTok, it’s all been manipulated. How? We don’t know – that’s what the police are looking into.
‘All I know is that Lauren has been brought into it and it’s all been put onto TikTok and been manipulated to make it look like she and Holly were together.
‘I have no idea who filmed that video. Lauren and Holly obviously know each other. They both worked for BA and sometimes worked on the same flights.
‘Lauren had been with BA for six years and Holly for ten years.
‘If they were racist and were troublemakers, they wouldn’t have been serving for all that time, would they?
In the video, Ms Walton is seen wearing a blue dress with red-tinted glasses on her head and in a cartoonish Chinese accent says: ‘Give me wine.’
She then appears to make slant-eyed gestures as a bottle of beer sits on the table in front of her.
The clip was reportedly filmed from the luxury Trade Winds hotel in Antigua.
The pair had reportedly been cabin crew on the BA2157 flight from Gatwick and were said to have been joking around between flights
Outraged colleagues said they were mocking a Chinese family on the busy flight who spoke little English.
One Asian-born employee said she had been ‘left reeling’ by the clip, which was viewed more than a million times on TikTok.
Another said the women were ‘deliberately laughing’ at the family which ‘sends out the worst message possible’.
Both Ms Bray and Ms Walton were summoned to a meeting with BA bosses on Monday at the airline’s headquarters where they were sacked. Ms Bray apparently left in tears.
The source said: ‘British Airways have got logs as to who was on that flights and whether there were Asian people on the flight. If these passengers were so irate and passengers had complained, it was two years ago, why has this emerged now? None of it is clear. None of it makes any sense.
The pair had been cabin crew on the BA2157 flight from Gatwick and were said to have been between flights when they made the video at the luxury Trade Winds hotel in Antigua. Pictured: Holly Walton
Ms Walton was ordered to fly back from a round trip in Cancun, Mexico for the showdown meeting on Monday with BA bosses at the airline’s headquarters, reported The Sun, where the pair were sacked. Pictured: Holly Walton
The clip was widely shared on TikTok and has been viewed more than one million times. Pictured: Holly Walton
‘Both Lauren and Holly’s TikTok accounts were private so anything that has been obtained has been hacked.
‘They haven’t put it on TikTok, someone else has. It’s nothing to do with them – they’re not that stupid.
‘This same TikTok account included Lauren’s personal Facebook details, pictures of her, myself, our family and the fact she lived in Crawley.
‘That was all removed and the police originally treated it as a hate crime towards Lauren because of personal information.
‘It’s a fake TikTok account with fake bots as all the comments are from false accounts. They’re the same four people and the ‘likes’ have been bought and generated.
‘BA is well aware of all this and are looking into it so when they find out who it is, that person will get sacked too.
‘It’s most likely the person who went to the papers, a colleague with a grievance.’
The source criticised the manner in which Britain’s flag carrier airline has handled the matter, adding: ‘Lauren and Holly should have been suspended pending an investigation, but BA made a rash decision because bosses knew it was going to get out and so they did what they thought made them look good in the circumstances.
‘Both women have appealed and both have got the union on their side as proper procedures weren’t followed and now we know why – because BA obviously wanted to say ‘we’ve got rid of them both’.
Ms Bray is now seeking employment away from the aviation industry and was already looking to switch jobs due to the strain being a stewardess was having on her relationship.
The source added: ‘Lauren has gone away with some friends to escape from all this.
‘She was looking at getting out of flying anyway because her being away a lot wasn’t working out with her partner.
‘She doesn’t want to go and work for BA ever again, her main focus is to leave the matter with the police, let them sort it out. She’s going to get another job and move on with her life.
‘If we need any legal advice we will take legal advice but we’re waiting on that at the moment because police are very close to finding out who has leaked all this.’
A spokesman for BA said: ‘All forms of racism are completely unacceptable, and we take allegations of this nature very seriously.
‘These two individuals are no longer employed by us.’