The passenger who made the recording, David Lawrence, posted the video on Facebook; it has been viewed millions of times and been reposted by many users.

The police asked anyone with information to call them.

“Essex Police takes prejudice-based crime seriously and we want all incidents to be reported,” the police said in a statement. “We are working closely with Ryanair and the Spanish authorities on the investigation.”

But Mr. Turner said that because Ryanair is an Irish company and the incident happened on the ground in Spain, the man most likely could not be prosecuted in Britain. He criticized the airline for not alerting the Spanish authorities while the plane was still on the tarmac.

“@Ryanair have ‘tolerated’ criminal behaviour,” Mr. Turner said on Twitter.

The man started ranting at the woman on the aisle after he tried sliding past her during boarding.

The woman, who has arthritis, did not get up speedily enough for his liking, and by the time Mr. Lawrence had taken out his cellphone to record, the woman’s daughter was defending her.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” he answered. “If I tell her to get out, she gets out.”

A flight attendant tried to calm the man and the woman’s daughter. But after the flight attendant moved out of the cellphone video frame, the man grew even angrier.

The woman soon got up to sit with her daughter, and the flight attendant told the man he would speak to a supervisor.