Qantas demands will.i.am retract racism accusation

The flight attendant accused of racism by will.i.am will get legal support from Qantas to pursue him in court if he does not retract his allegations.

Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am has started a Twitter storm. Picture:AP

The flight attendant accused of racism by American rapper will.i.am will get legal support from Qantas to pursue him in court if he does not retract his ­online allegations.

Qantas yesterday called on the Black Eyed Peas star to take down his tweets naming the flight attendant and branding her “racist” after the posts gained worldwide attention.

The airline said “in the ­absence of a retraction, if the crew member wanted to take it further, we’d certainly be willing to provide legal support for them to do this”.

Will.i.am’s posts were made after a Brisbane-Sydney flight on Saturday during which he was asked several times to stow his laptop for landing. When the crew member reported the incident to the flight deck, the captain requested Australian Federal Police meet the aircraft on arrival in Sydney.

No charges were laid against will.i.am, who took to social media to tell his 12.8 million followers that he had been the victim of ­racism by a “very aggressive” flight attendant.

He defended his decision to name her on the basis he would be “publicly named” if he were slightly rude to a fan.

Qantas strongly backed the crew member on Monday, saying the airline “fully supported its crew and the great work they did ensuring the safety of all those on board”.

Flight Attendants Association of Australia secretary Teri O’Toole said the crew member was shaken by the incident.“She is obviously distressed at the amount of worldwide attention she’s received — it’s gone all over the world,” she said.

“Her mental health is our No 1 priority and we will be supporting her in any way we can.”

Ms O’Toole said it was frustrating for crew when passengers treated safety directions like an in­convenience, or an “optional ­request”.

“Customers are used to behaving badly in restaurants and hotels but on an aircraft there are a whole lot of safety impli­cations,” she said. “The other thing is the Civil Aviation Safety Authority has regulations that say ‘you must follow the direction of the cabin crew’. It’s a condition of carriage people forget.”

The FAAA wanted to see the role of cabin crew viewed as ­“aviation’s first responders” in the same way as ambulance ­officers, firefighters and police.

As the incident and will.i.am’s tweets went viral, indigenous rights activist Murrandoo ­Yanner spoke out in support of Qantas.

The lower Gulf of Carpentaria community leader said in his extensive experience with Qantas, he had “never found the airline to be racist or to tolerate racism”.

“I have nothing but love and admiration for the Black Eyed Peas but I think (will.i.am) has made the wrong call in regards to Qantas,” Mr Yanner said.

“I travel a lot and I’ve never found Qantas to be racist. Qantas have employed quite a lot of indigenous people and done some programs with indigenous people and should be commended for that because many companies are making no attempt.”

He also questioned will.i.am’s praise for police at the same time as criticising Qantas.

“In his one-off experience, he’s found Qantas to be racist and police to be quite polite,” Mr Yanner said. “I’ve had tens of thousands of interactions with both and I can tell you the reality on the ground for Aboriginal Australians is quite different.”