According to friends of the family, the two men seen in the video had gone to the airport to pick up their mother after she had been racially harassed on the plane. “They went to pick up their mum. Someone was harassing her on the plane, calling her racist words,” said a woman who only gave her last name as Begum. “It was a long journey and she was tired and he wouldn’t leave her alone.” Begum’s son, who gave his last name as Khan, explained that his friend Fahir, 19, and his brother then confronted the man in arrivals, asking “what his problem” was. He claimed it was a purely verbal altercation, after which the man left and reported the incident to the police.