American track and field star Sha'Carri Richardson was thrown out of an American Airline flight following an altercation with a flight attendant on Saturday. Richardson, 23, claimed that the flight attendant, whom she refers to as "John," allegedly insulted her while she was on the phone.
Richardson recorded herself in her seat in a video and then panned to the flight attendant. The athlete then posted the video of the entire incident to her Instagram account. In the video also Richardson allegedly complained to the camera that the flight attendant identified as "John" had "disrespected" her while she was talking on her phone just before takeoff.
Mid-Air Altercation
Richardson was making a video clip where she is seen speaking to the camera when the altercation suddenly started. She claimed in her Instagram post that she did not like the tone the flight attendant used when ordering her to put down the phone, before claiming that he stood over her and demanded to look at the phone to see if it was in Airplane Mode since.
"Prior to the video this gentleman asked me to get off a cell phone call, I did," Richardson wrote in the caption of one of her videos.
"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."
Although Richardson claimed to be on vacation, it's unclear where she was going or coming from. They continued to argue and after she showed the flight attendant in her video he retreated behind a curtain.
After requesting her to stop the recording, Richardson gestured in an animated manner to the flight attendant. The footage does not show the flight attendant's initial remarks to Richardson.
"I'm recording me but you jumped in my video, so I caught you, because you jumped in my video," Richardson told the flight attendant. "You're harassing me at this point, so I think you should stop. I think you should stop."
When she continued to argue with the attendant, other passengers could be heard becoming irate and telling her to stop.
One passenger and Richardson got into a violent argument, and Richardson told the woman to stop yelling at her.
"Y'all see him right? Y'all see him right? Y'all see him right? I'm sorry, it's not me," Richardson responded. "Talk to him. No ma'am. Do no talk to me like that. I'm an adult. Do not talk to me like that. Do not talk to me like that. Tell him to stop. If you do not know what's going on, do not yell at me."
Fight on Flight
Richardson claims that several of the other passengers on board disrespected her after she got into another fight with a different person. Another passenger can be heard saying, "Thank you, by the way, I'm going to miss my connection, I have to now get off the plane," as she explains that she believes the flight attendant should have been expelled as well.
"Oh, so you're worried about a connection when a grown man is disrespecting me?" Richardson responded.
"I don't give a s–t," the passenger replied.
Richardson was then escorted off the aircraft as she continued to yell at other passengers and crew members. As she left, there was applause. "Tell me if I'll be wrong to pursue legal actions against the airline @americanair not only did the man threaten me but also an innocent bystander who simply just wanted a picture with me. 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," Richardson posted.
"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."
This wasn't the first time Richardson has made headlines for controversy after she tested positive for a marijuana test in 2021. She failed a drug test and was thus given a 30-day suspension, which prevented her from competing in the 100-meter dash in the Tokyo Olympics.
She claimed that she had solely used marijuana to help her deal with the passing of her biological mother before the Olympic trials in Oregon.
Days before she established herself as a gold medal contender by winning the 100-meter dash in 10.86 seconds at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon on June 19, she responded to a reporter's query about how she learned about the demise of her biological mother.
