Sha’Carri Richardson, whose claim to fame is being kicked off the 2022 United States Olympics team for violating a well-known drug policy, once again found herself being kicked off something else back in January of 2023. That time, it was an American Airlines flight.
Richardson was removed from the aircraft after what Fox News Digital called a “verbal confrontation” that began after a flight attendant asked her to end a phone call taking place prior to take off. In a caption about the event posted to social media, Richardson wrote, “Prior to the video this gentleman asked me to get off a cell phone call, I did.”
She then went on to say, in a series of posts on Instagram, that she felt “disrespected” by the flight attendant during the fight that followed her being asked to turn off her cell phone, leading to the escalating confrontation.
Speaking about the situation on Instagram, she said, “Prior to the video this gentleman [the flight attendant] asked me to get off a cell phone call, I did.” Then, after setting the scene, she went on to claim that the flight attendant used a rude “tone.” It’s unclear if the flight attendant was actually rude or if that was imaginary.
In any case, Richardson went on to say, explaining what happened next, “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.”
The flight attendant then resumed the safety briefing but kept an eye on Richardson while doing so, which infuriated her. “You’re harassing me at this point, I think you should stop. I think you should stop,” she told him during the recorded interaction. Both the flight attendant and other passengers asked her to calm down and stop recording.
Undeterred, Richardson continued with filming and narrating her self-diagnosed oppression on the airplane. “Y’all see him right? Y’all see him right? Y’all see him right? I’m sorry, it’s not me. 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,” she said. The athlete’s fellow airline passengers reacted quite negatively to her antics. One, for example, said, “Thank you, by the way. I’m missing my connection.”
Responding, an entirely self-absorbed Richardso retorted, “Oh, so you’re worried about a connection when a grown man is disrespecting me?” Obviously quite mad about the situation, the passenger angrily retorted, “I don’t give a s—.”
Watch the video here:
Richardson subsequently threatened legal action against American Airlines in the caption of one of her posts, saying, “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.”
“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,” Richardson later added.
Featured image: jenaragon94, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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