To most of the passengers on the Ryanair Flight from Sardinia to London, the five black men sitting quietly in the economy cabin were nothing more sinister than fellow passengers.

But to the psychology professor seated near them, they could only be terrorists. For one thing, they were sitting apart – when they had been together in the departure lounge – which could only be suspicious. Worse, one of the group acted as if he was blind but was reading newspapers and magazines. Or at least, that’s what it looked like to him. After he went to the pilot saying the aircraft was in danger, Captain Sam Dunlop had the men removed from the aircraft.

The five members of Caribbean Steel International were awarded £1,116 each in damages yesterday after a judge found that they had been removed unreasonably. Far from being terrorists, they were returning from a music festival in Sardinia.

The court heard that the musicians were not sitting next to each other because the flight was full. The band’s drummer, Michael Toussaint, was indeed blind and one of the other band members had been reading the football scores to him from a newspaper while they waited for take-off.

Captain Dunlop decided to remove the men, the only black people on the flight, after two families and a stewardess said that they would not fly with them on board.

Summing up at the Mayor’s & City of London Court yesterday, district judge Roger Southcombe said that the five claimants had been scared and embarrassed when Italian police armed with guns boarded the aircraft to take them off. Although they were later cleared by the airport’s security, the men had not been allowed to reboard the Ryanair flight. The judge said that Captain Dunlop had adopted a “zero tolerance” approach, despite being informed by the airport authorities that the band posed no threat. “[Captain Dunlop] considered that he must enforce that policy even though the residual fears of a few passengers and crew were, he must have known by then, irrational,” the judge said. “Just because a passenger was black or someone did not like the look of him or her, it [was] not be acceptable to offload that passenger.” The decision left the group stranded in Sardinia and unable to see their families on New Year’s Eve. The first available flight back to Britain on New Year’s Day was to Liverpool. The men could not find a hotel when they arrived in the city and had to spend the night at a bus station, sleeping on their instruments. They only got back to London on January 2.

Jason Constantine, 43, a member of the band, said yesterday: “We were utterly confused when we were marched off the plane by armed police and then we were angry when they wouldn’t let us back on. We were told nothing by the airline or the pilot.

“The least you would have expected in this situation was an explanation and an apology, but that wasn’t forthcoming.”

Normally, damages for being denied boarding are limited to £250, but the judge said that the group’s “embarrassment at being the only black persons removed from the aircraft at gunpoint for no just reason, their inability to be with their families and friends on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, the overnight stay in the cold of Liverpool, [all] had to be taken into account”.

Ryanair had also lied about the incident to the press. Peter Sherrard, the airline’s head of communications, had told newspapers that “airport security were informed and decided to remove the group”, and that “no request was made to our pilot to allow this group to reboard”. This was “false and misleading”, the judge said.

Phillip Marshall, QC, representing the band, heard about the case while listening to In Touch, a Radio 4 programme about disabilities. “It was an extraordinary case. Ryanair decided to fight it tooth and nail. Any other sensible airline would have realised they should have paid compensation,” he said.

A spokesman for Ryanair said last night that it would appeal against the decision.

The beat

— The drum, or pan, used by a steel band is a tuned 55-gallon oil drum

— Its first recorded use was during the Trinidad Carnival in 1935

— The steel drums originate from the skin drums used in 18th-century Trinidad to summon members of gangs to fight

— Every year performers compete in the Notting Hill Carnival for the title of Champions of Steel

— Caribbean Steel International came fourth in last year’s competition at the carnival

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