Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am has accused a Qantas flight attendant of racism after a tense incident on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney on Saturday.
Tweeting while he was still on the plane, the rapper and songwriter told his 12.8 million followers that he had been mistreated by 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,” he said.
He said the incident happened about 20 minutes into the flight when missed the announcements over the PA because he was wearing noise cancelling headphones.
He was then confronted by the flight attendant when he did not put away his laptop fast enough.
After the plane landed, the singer was met by police at Sydney airport on Saturday.
In subsequent tweets, he added: “I was intimidated by 5 police when I landed…for what?”
In his tweets, the star named the attendant involved in the row and shared an image of her and an Australian federal police officer.
But will.i.am was criticised by others for naming the Qantas employee to his followers. The singer would later tweet urging followers not to target the woman.
Will.i.am is currently on tour in Australia.
Qantas, however, has issued a statement denying the allegation.
“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 spokesman said.
“We’ll be following up with will.i.am and wish him well for the rest of the tour.”
