The Black Eyed Peas star Will.i.am has accused a Qantas flight attendant of racism while on board a flight from Brisbane to Sydney on Saturday. Not only did he take to Twitter, where he has 12.8 million followers, to air his grievances, he also posted a picture of the flight attendant in question, which many felt was an unsafe decision.
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The star said the “aggressive” encounter happened when the Qantas employee accused him of not listening to the safety demonstration on his way to his performance at RNB Fridays Live festival at Homebush. Once he disembarked the flight he was met by “five” members of the police.
He wrote: “I’m currently on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney. I’m sorry to say me and my group have experienced they worse service due to an overly aggressive flight attendant. I don’t want to believe she [is] racist, but she has clearly aimed all her frustrations only at the people of colour.”
He said the woman “was beyond rude and took it to the next level by calling the police”. He added: “Thank God the other passengers testified that SHE was out of Control.”
Will.i.am said the reason the police were called is because he “couldn’t hear the PA while making beats on the plane wearing noise canceling headphones.”
Journalist Peter Ford replied: “Why do you need to play this out so publicly? Even naming the flight attendant. It’s just an exercise in intimidation and ego on your part. You seriously think she was out looking to annoy people of colour? Grow up.”
Another added: “Maybe she’s had a long day ever think about that before pulling the race card.
Another said: “I am willing to bet this one side of a story blown out of proportion.”
But another passenger, who claimed to be on the same flight as Will.i.am jumped to his defence.
“I was on the same flight and couldn’t believe the appalling behaviour of the flight attendant. My apologies on behalf of Australia,” she wrote.
“There was a misunderstanding on board, which seems to have been exacerbated by will.i.am wearing noise cancelling headphones and not being able to hear instructions from crew,” a Qantas spokesman told The Daily Telegraph.
“We completely reject the suggestion this had anything to do with race. We’ll be following up with Will.i.am and wish him well for the rest of the tour.”
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