Wednesday, June 17, 2015




High-flying RAF officer under fire after 'blacking up' to dress as member of Cool Runnings Jamaican bobsleigh team

An RAF flight lieutenant has been accused of offending his colleagues after 'blacking up' for a stag do.

It was thought John Hendstock, 28, who is a senior air traffic control officer at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, may have breached RAF rules after the stunt in Liverpool.

But an RAF source has since said he will not face any disciplinary action.

Mr Hendstock, who is white, published pictures on Facebook of himself and friends who smeared their faces with black paint to mimic the Jamaican bobsleigh team made famous in the film Cool Runnings.

The officer and two friends had blacked their faces, put on wigs and were all wearing a skin-tight suit in the colours of the Jamaican flag on Friday.

One anonymous RAF source told MailOnline that he had gone 'too far' and said the outfit was not 'appropriate'.

He said: 'John Hendstock is at RAF Brize Norton commanding various ethnic groups. I do not think it is appropriate for him to be blacking up at any time.

However, one of Mr Hendstock's friends, who was also pictured at the stag party dressed up as one of the Cool Runnings characters, has since defended him.

Daniel Brown said: ‘As someone who is mixed race and actually of Jamaican heritage myself, I find it hard to understand why John is being singled out and criticised for wearing Cool Runnings fancy dress with me and two of my friends on a recent stag weekend.

'It should be noted that it was my suggestion for the four of us to dress up as members of the Cool Runnings team.

But an RAF source said today: 'This is not being considered for any sort of administrative or disciplinary action.'

SOURCE


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jeez, don't these people have something better to do? It's obvious from the post, there was no insult intended. All this PC crap has to stop, and all those folks getting butt hurt over nothing need to be put in their places.

Bird of Paradise said...

PC nonsense PC stupidity

Anonymous said...

Get over it. If you sack this man you may regret it when the Russians come visiting.

Unknown said...

I was John's Secondary school Teacher and I can assure you that John us in no way racist he used to pal out with many black and mixed race pipils. He was and is a very polite and well mannered man and even came back to school in full uniform to speak to and encourage young students to think about and join the armed forces who defend and protect our beautiful islands oh and by the way he has an amazing sense of humour Ged Towey North Chadderton school