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Delta Air Lines responded Wednesday to accusations from a YouTube star that he was kicked off a flight because he spoke Arabic to his mom on the phone before takeoff.
In a statement, Delta 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. We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect.”
Delta was responding to a series of widely circulated tweets by Adam Saleh, who has over 1.6 million subscribers to his TrueStoryASA YouTube channel, and over 2.2 million subscribers to his Adam Saleh Vlogs YouTube channel. Saleh’s YouTube channels are full of prank videos as well as videos about Muslim life, and he is a self-described “professional idiot.”
In an interview with CBSN, Saleh said he takes numerous flights every month, and he was upset because something like this never happened before.
“I speak to my mom on the phone every flight,” Saleh said. “She only speaks Arabic.”
He said when he was speaking to her, a woman in the seat in front of him turned around and told him he ought to speak English. Saleh said he told her he can speak whatever language he likes, and her husband responded by standing up and screaming at him.
Then about 20 people allegedly said they were uncomfortable with Saleh and his Arabic-speaking companion. The pair were approached by the captain, who Saleh said “seemed ashamed and embarassed” when he asked them to leave the plane because of the other passengers’ complaints.
In one video Saleh posted to Twitter that was retweeted 83,000 times in just 2 hours, Saleh can be seen getting escorted off the plane.
As he is slowly walking down the aisle of the jet, Saleh says he is being kicked off for “speaking a different language.” He said he was just innocently talking to his mother when “white” people around him began complaining about his use of Arabic. This led to a handful of Delta personnel asking Saleh to leave the flight.
In the video, some passengers can be seen telling the apparent Delta employees that they did not want Saleh removed, while others can be seen waving and saying “bye” as he walks away.
It is not clear in which city the incident took place, although according to Saleh’s social media accounts, he was on his way from Australia to New York.
He later tweeted that police and security officials interviewed him and the other person kicked off the flight multiple times.
Saleh later said he got on a flight to New York with a different airline after being “checked” for 30 minutes.
“I’m not gonna let this go,” Saleh said. “What if they do this to people like my mother who can’t even speak English?”
No official accounting of what exactly transpired on the flight has been released by the airline or airport security. Mediaite reports that Saleh has a history of faking anti-Muslim incidents.
However, Delta employees have been accused of discriminating against Muslims in recent years.
In August, an Ohio Muslim couple said they were removed from a return flight from Europe after an airline employee allegedly singled them out because of their appearance.
Delta issued the pair a full refund of the couple’s airfare for the July 26 flight from Paris to Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport. The suburban Cincinnati couple were allegedly removed from the flight because an airline employee wasn’t comfortable with the woman wearing a headscarf and talking on the phone, and with the husband sweating. They were returning home after visiting London and Paris to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/delta-responds-youtube-star-adam-saleh-arabic-discrimination-accusation/
In a statement, Delta 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. We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect.”
Delta was responding to a series of widely circulated tweets by Adam Saleh, who has over 1.6 million subscribers to his TrueStoryASA YouTube channel, and over 2.2 million subscribers to his Adam Saleh Vlogs YouTube channel. Saleh’s YouTube channels are full of prank videos as well as videos about Muslim life, and he is a self-described “professional idiot.”
In an interview with CBSN, Saleh said he takes numerous flights every month, and he was upset because something like this never happened before.
“I speak to my mom on the phone every flight,” Saleh said. “She only speaks Arabic.”
He said when he was speaking to her, a woman in the seat in front of him turned around and told him he ought to speak English. Saleh said he told her he can speak whatever language he likes, and her husband responded by standing up and screaming at him.
Then about 20 people allegedly said they were uncomfortable with Saleh and his Arabic-speaking companion. The pair were approached by the captain, who Saleh said “seemed ashamed and embarassed” when he asked them to leave the plane because of the other passengers’ complaints.
In one video Saleh posted to Twitter that was retweeted 83,000 times in just 2 hours, Saleh can be seen getting escorted off the plane.
As he is slowly walking down the aisle of the jet, Saleh says he is being kicked off for “speaking a different language.” He said he was just innocently talking to his mother when “white” people around him began complaining about his use of Arabic. This led to a handful of Delta personnel asking Saleh to leave the flight.
In the video, some passengers can be seen telling the apparent Delta employees that they did not want Saleh removed, while others can be seen waving and saying “bye” as he walks away.
It is not clear in which city the incident took place, although according to Saleh’s social media accounts, he was on his way from Australia to New York.
He later tweeted that police and security officials interviewed him and the other person kicked off the flight multiple times.
Saleh later said he got on a flight to New York with a different airline after being “checked” for 30 minutes.
“I’m not gonna let this go,” Saleh said. “What if they do this to people like my mother who can’t even speak English?”
No official accounting of what exactly transpired on the flight has been released by the airline or airport security. Mediaite reports that Saleh has a history of faking anti-Muslim incidents.
However, Delta employees have been accused of discriminating against Muslims in recent years.
In August, an Ohio Muslim couple said they were removed from a return flight from Europe after an airline employee allegedly singled them out because of their appearance.
Delta issued the pair a full refund of the couple’s airfare for the July 26 flight from Paris to Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport. The suburban Cincinnati couple were allegedly removed from the flight because an airline employee wasn’t comfortable with the woman wearing a headscarf and talking on the phone, and with the husband sweating. They were returning home after visiting London and Paris to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/delta-responds-youtube-star-adam-saleh-arabic-discrimination-accusation/
