United States musician and Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am has accused a Qantas flight attendant of racial profiling after she allegedly called the police over a disagreement on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney today.
Just after midday, the hip hop star tweeted:
I’m currently on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney.
I’m sorry to say me and my group have experienced the worst service due to an overly aggressive flight attendant…
I don’t want to believe she racist.
But she has clearly aimed all her frustrations only at the people of colour.
According to will.i.am, the flight attendant called the police to meet him at Sydney airport because he “couldn’t hear the P.A. while making beats on the plane wearing noise cancelling headphones“.
He alleges (and provides pictures to support this) that five police officers met him when he landed, intimidated him, and only let him go after other passengers corroborated his account of events.
He also says that he quickly and politely put his laptop away when she asked him to.
Thank god the other passengers testified that SHE was out of control … the police finally let me go. Imagine if the police were as aggressive as [name redacted].
While some users questioned will.i.am’s methods of calling out flight attendant, other Twitter users who say they were on the same flight have backed up the musician, saying that the flight attendant was out of line.
Qantas has copped some bad press recently after an extended saga with the Veronicas over an incident that saw them booted off a Sydney to Brisbane flight in September.
As for this case, the Australian Federal Police have said that yes, they met will.i.am and his entourage at the airport and decided no further action was needed.
A spokesperson told the media that “the AFP considers the matter finalised.“
We’ll see.
