Australian airline Qantas is planning to help their flight attendant sue rapper Will.i.am, formally of Black Eyed Peas fame, if he refuses to retract his claim that she was racist towards him during a flight on Saturday.
WATCH: Footage of The Veronicas being escorted off plane
On Monday, The Daily Telegraph revealed a memo sent by Qantas to staff: “The tweets claimed poor treatment from crew and discrimination on the basis of race. We replied that there appeared to be a misunderstanding on board that was exacerbated by the fact Will.i.am was wearing noise cancelling headphones,” the memo said.
“We rejected claims of racism and have since asked Will.i.am for a retraction of that claim. We fully support our crew and the great work they do ensuring safety of all those on board.”
A Qantas spokesman added: “(In absence of) a retraction and if the crew member wanted to take the matter further, we’d certainly be willing to provide legal support for them to do this.”
It believed the female flight attendant involved, who Will.i.am shared a photo of on his Twitter account,
It’s understood the flight attendant that will.i.am publicly shamed over the incident has a clean record with Qantas.
Will.i.am said the “aggressive” encounter happened when the Qantas employee accused him of not listening to the safety demonstration on his way to his performance at RNB Fridays Live festival at Homebush. Once he disembarked the flight he was met by “five” members of the police.
He wrote: “I’m currently on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney. I’m sorry to say me and my group have experienced they worse service due to an overly aggressive flight attendant. I don’t want to believe she [is] racist, but she has clearly aimed all her frustrations only at the people of colour.”
He said the woman “was beyond rude and took it to the next level by calling the police”. He added: “Thank God the other passengers testified that SHE was out of Control.”
Will.i.am said the reason the police were called is because he “couldn’t hear the PA while making beats on the plane wearing noise canceling headphones.”
On Sunday, The Veronicas appear to have deleted their Twitter account after backing Will.i.am in his incident involving Qantas.
The Veronicas claimed the same flight attendant was involved when they were kicked off a Qantas flight in September.
“We support Will.iam,” they wrote in a since-deleted statement on Twitter. “Sadly this female flight attendant was 1 of 2 attendants involved in our incident with Qantas.
“We feel sickened she was given no reprisal and has instead continued to abuse her position, discriminate, and misuse the full force and intimidation of the Australian Federal Police to her agenda.
“In this case to menace will.i.am and other POC (persons of colour) on this flight.”
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