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A popular YouTube star was kicked off a Delta air lines flight Wednesday after he spoke Arabic to his mom on the phone and brought “discomfort” to other passengers shortly before takeoff, the airline and the ejected man said.
YouTube star Adam Saleh posted footage of himself being escorted off the plane on Twitter after he spoke in Arabic to his mum and friend.
He said in the clip you can watch below, that after passengers heard him speaking Arabic, they “felt uncomfortable” and called flight attendants.
Saleh was on a flight from London to New York with his friend Slim Albaher, another YouTube personality, who was also escorted off the plane.
“They kicked us off the plane because a lady, because a lot of people felt uncomfortable,” Saleh can be heard saying. “Delta Air Lines just kicked us out for speaking Arabic.”
Saleh told the Guardian that he was calling his mother before his flight from Heathrow.
“Usually before I take off I speak to my mom,” he said. “My mom is 66 years old and she only speaks Arabic, so I was speaking to her in Arabic – it was a 30-second phone call.”
After the phone call, he said, he was speaking with Albaher in Arabic and in English when “this lady that was sitting maybe four seats ahead of us turns around and says: ‘Oh my, you need to speak English, I’m feeling very uncomfortable’.” Saleh said after another passenger defended the two, an older man the woman was travelling with also got involved.
According to Saleh, he said: “Chuck them of the f-ing plane!” before other men stood up and called for the captain.
Delta responded to the incident in a series of replies on Twitter confirming two people had been removed after a “disturbance”.
The company said: “Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort. We’re conducting a full review to understand what transpired taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect.”
Saleh is known for orchestrating pranks in his YouTube videos. He recently created a video that appeared to show himself travelling from Melbourne to Sydney inside a suitcase in the plane’s baggage hold. The airline later said that Saleh had sat in a regular seat on the flight and that travelling via the baggage section would have been impossible.
We got kicked out of a @Delta airplane because I spoke Arabic to my mom on the phone and with my friend slim… WTFFFFFFFF please spread pic.twitter.com/P5dQCE0qos
— Adam Saleh (@omgAdamSaleh) December 21, 2016
Agencies/Canadajournal
