Dylan Bettencourt
Boxer Amir Khan says he was kicked off a US flight “for no reason” following a row over Covid-19 masks.
The former world champion was getting on a flight from New York to begin work at a training camp in Colorado ahead of his next fight.
The British boxer gave his account of the incident via a video on social media.
He and his teammate were removed from a flight due to their face mask not being high enough, he claimed.
The 34-year-old said: “Obviously a complaint was made by American Airlines staff, they said that my colleague’s mask was not high enough and not up, that they had to stop the plane and take me and my friend off when I did nothing wrong.”
Khan did not hold back his anger towards the American Airlines staff, calling his treatment “disgusting and disrespectful”.
He said the aviation company did not utilise security cameras on the plane to justify kicking them off the flight.
“There must be cameras that they can see to see if I or my colleague were bad in any way or caused a scene in any way,” he said.
“I’ve never seen this happen before and I’m heartbroken.”
American Airlines released a statement explaining the plane had “returned to the gate to deplane two customers who reportedly refused to comply with repeated crew member requests to stow luggage, place cell phones in airplane mode and adhere to federal face covering requirements”.
Despite Khan stating that the airline banned him from travelling, American Airlines confirmed that neither the boxer or his colleague were placed on a travel ban or any form of list that would inconvenience travel for the pair.
Khan, whose family hails from Punjab in Pakistan, used the hashtag #NotAllTerrorists in his tweet, implying that he and his teammate were removed from the flight due to their ethnicity.
Image source: @TheMirror
