Sha’Carri Richardson booted off flight after argument with ‘disrespectful’ attendant
American track star Sha’Carri Richardson was kicked off an American Airlines flight on Saturday morning following an altercation with a flight attendant.
The 22-year-old posted videos of the incident on Instagram, alleging that the flight attendant disrespected her while she was on her phone prior to takeoff.
One of the videos shows Richardson recording herself while seated aboard the plane, during which a male flight attendant appears, apparently to confront her about her cell phone use at the time. Richardson then accuses the attendant of “jumping” in her video and “harassing” her.
“Prior to the video this gentleman asked me to get off a cell phone call, I did,” Richardson wrote in a caption, adding “I stated to him I didn’t like the tone he used with me. Following that while standing in front of me doing the safety protocols he continued to lean over to look at my phone. He asked to see that my phones were in airplane more at this point. He demanded that me show him. Which I did in front of him.
“Now in this video, after following all his requests despite his unprofessional behaviour, he continues to harass me,” Richardson wrote.
Several passengers are heard addressing the incident, with one male passenger seemingly annoyed that the situation may cause him to be late for his connecting flight and accusing Richardson of being “selfish”.
“Oh, so you’re worried about a connection when a grown man is disrespecting me?” Richardson responded.
“I don’t give a s***,” the passenger replied.
Meanwhile, one female passenger expresses support for Richardson while in conversation with the star athlete.
“They didn’t have to do that, they just wanted to do it,” the woman said. “They do that to all of us. They let other people get away with b*** s***.”
The woman is then heard requesting an autograph from Richardson and as the sprinter proceeds to sign the autograph, an airline worker approaches the athlete to tell her that the captain wants her removed from the plane.
Richardson is then escorted off the plane, to which some passengers applauded
“In the beginning of the video you can hear a Caucasian male state that he doesn’t give a f as a man that male flight attendant is intimidating a woman. Also the captain not doing anything to help the situation and this flight attendant has the applause when I exited the plane when I’m pretty serious the disrespect I received would not have happened if I was a one of them,” Richardson wrote.
She hinted in her post that she may pursue legal action against the airline.
Responding to the incident, American Airlines said in a statement: “We strive to provide all our customers with a positive experience. We reaccommodated the customer on a later flight and a member of our team has reached out to learn more.”