The Qantas-Will.i.am fued took a new turn after the airline has vowed to help a member of its cabin staff take legal action against the musician if he does not retract his claim that he was a victim of racial discrimination.
The rapper and producer claimed he was targetted on a recent flight from Brisbane to Sydney. He shared his experience onboard a Qantas flight and called out the airline on Twitter after a misunderstanding led to a flight attendant calling the police on the musician.
According to the former Black Eyed Peas singer, he was wearing noise cancelling headphones while the announcements were going on over the PA and said that he complied with the flight stewdardess’ requests to put his laptop away.
Despite being “polite” he was asked to step aside by the police when he landed.
Tweeting a picture of a police officer, Will.i.am then tweeted his experience on landing saying: “This is how your greeted when you land from Brisbane to Sydney flying @qantas with a #RacistFlightattendant named…She sent the police after me bacause I couldn’t hear the P.A while making beats on the plane wearing noise canceling headphones…”
Qantas did respond to his complaint in a statement to The Independent and said:
“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.
“We completely reject the suggestion this had anything to do with race. We’ll be following up with will.i.am and wish him well for the rest of the tour.”
But now, they’re mulling legal action against the former black Eyed Peas frontman.
“Absent 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,” a spokesperson told CNN.
