Qantas crew turns its attack on rapper will.i.am
Flight attendants on the attack over will.i.am’s outing of a Qantas cabin crew member he claims was racist.
Flight attendants have gone on the attack over pop star will.i.am’s outing of a Qantas cabin crew member he claims treated him poorly because of his race.
UPDATE: Qantas calls on will.i.am to retract posts
The Black Eyed Peas rapper in a string of tweets on Saturday labelled the flight attendant “racist” after police were called to meet his flight from Brisbane to Sydney.
The incident is believed to have stemmed from will.i.am’s behaviour throughout the flight, from refusing to show his boarding pass to ignoring safety directions to stow his laptop.
“This is how your (sic) greeted when you land from Brisbane to Sydney flying Qantas with a racist flight attendant named …,” he tweeted, with a picture of an Australian Federal Police officer.
READ MORE: will.i.am met by police at Sydney airport | Veronicas booted off Qantas flight
“She sent the police after me because I couldn’t hear the PA while making beats on the plane while wearing noise-cancelling headphones.”
He continued with “Qantas your racist flight attendant was beyond rude … Imagine if the police were as aggressive as (flight attendant’s name)”.
I’m currently on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney.
— will.i.am (@iamwill) November 16, 2019
I’m sorry to say me and my group have experienced they worse service due to a 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
A Qantas spokesman confirmed there was a “misunderstanding” that appeared to have stemmed from will.i.am wearing noise-cancelling headphones.
“We completely reject the suggestion this had anything to do with race,” the spokesman said.
“We’ll be following up with will.i.am and wish him well for the rest of the tour.”
The flight attendant in question was being supported by Qantas and friends yesterday after followers of will.i.am trolled her on her social media sites, and labelled Qantas the “white supremacist airline”.
Flight Attendants Association of Australia secretary Teri O’Toole said it was disappointing and completely unjust that individual crew were singled out and their names spread across social media for simply doing their job.
“These are safety protocols that have been put in place by Qantas,” Ms O’Toole said. “As employees, crew are bound to follow their employer’s direction. It seems that in doing this, crew are being vilified and attacked on social media.”
She said take-off and landing were “critical operational times” and a flying laptop could cause serious injury to another passenger or crew member. “It seems like a pretty simple request (to stow a laptop for landing) and it’s there to protect passengers,” Ms O’Toole said.
Will.i.am defended his decision to name the flight attendant on social media, saying the same would happen to him if he did something wrong or was rude to a fan.
Ms O’Toole said it was ridiculous to compare a flight attendant with a celebrity who had close to 13 million followers.
“No one should be named and shamed for doing their job and it seems the welfare of the crew involved is not being considered by the celebrities involved,” she said, referring to a similar incident involving a Qantas crew member and pop duo The Veronicas in September.
The Veronicas, comprising sisters Jess and Lisa Origliasso, weighed into the matter with a tweet claiming the same flight attendant named by will.i.am was one of two that called the police on them, following a pre-flight confrontation over carry-on bags.
The Australian understands the flight attendant involved in the will.i.am incident was not on the flight with the Origliasso sisters, but the “mistaken identity” resulted in a wave of fresh abuse for those crew members.
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