Azealia Banks, 27, didn’t seem to have a good day on Jan. 21, and she took to Instagram to vent about it! The singer claimed she was mistreated by a stewardess on an Aer Lingus flight from Gatwick to Dublin, and it led to her deboarding the plane and getting banned from the airline. “Every time I come to the UK, they always make some s**t with these airline people,” Azealia said in one of the videos. “They are always starting s*** with me. I had my bags deep in the plane and the lady was asking me some questions. I was trying to find my passport as I didn’t have the answers and she was staring at me. I said, ‘Don’t stare at me.’ She goes to the Captain of the plane and said that I said, ‘Don’t stare at me or I’ll sort you out.’ I’m from NYC, I don’t use that slang.”
Azealia then tearfully said she was approached by several people. “They crowded round me like I’m some sort of animal saying, ‘we’re going to have a problem’,” she continued. “I get off the plane. I’ve worked too hard in my life to be cornered by some ugly Irish b***h. They are ugly Irish women here. Then all these security n***** come over treating me like a wild animal. They tried their hardest to get me to do something or freak out. B**** you’re not going to play me over no f***ing Aer Lingus flight. You’re not going to disrespect me and make a f***ing spectacle out of me.” She went on to claim she’s now banned from Aer Lingus flights because of the incident. “Now they’re like, ‘you can never fly Aer Lingus because you got off the plane.’ At first, they were trying to get me to stay. They kept saying, ‘Call the police, call the police’.”
An eyewitness, who was a passenger on the plane, also spoke out about what they saw in regards to the moment everything went down. “Azealia was sitting in front of me. It was a busy flight and there was not a lot of space,” the passenger told Daily Mail. “She was right at the front. A male friend was putting her things in the overhead locker, but Azealia needed to get something from her bag. She was stood in the aisle and preventing other passengers from boarding. Then she turned to the hostess and said, ‘Are you staring at me? Why are you staring at me? I didn’t fill out an Air Lingus form to be stared at.’ The hostess was being quite confrontational. She said to her, ‘I need to know if you are going to cause more trouble on this flight? If someone’s rude to a stewardess, it is something we have to ask. It’s protocol.’ Azealia said something to her friend about it being a power play. She said, ‘I am on this flight and I am famous.’ The hostess said, ‘I don’t care if you’re famous.’ Azealia was debating whether to leave. I remember her saying, ‘I don’t want them to spit in my coffee.’”
It was at that moment that Azealia decided to leave the plane, according to the passenger. “The stewardess then said, ‘Are you going to leave or not?’, and Azealia replied, ‘Fine, we are leaving.’ And she and her entourage got off the plane.” The passenger, who didn’t want to be named, then stated their opinion about the whole incident. “To be honest with you I think the airline staff were a bit aggressive and confrontational with her. They were asking Azealia if she was going to be trouble before we had even taken off, which only escalated the situation. Azealia was at the front of the plane and the stewardess was trying to hurry her along.”
A spokesperson for Aer Lingus also gave their side of the story when they made an official statement about the flight. “Aer Lingus can confirm that two guests scheduled to fly on the 10:55am flight from London Gatwick to Dublin (EI233) this morning disembarked themselves prior to departure,” the statement read. “The guests in question got off the plane safely of their own accord, while all other guests remained on board. As they had luggage in the hold, the flight was delayed while that luggage was sourced. The flight departed Gatwick at 12:07 and landed in Dublin at 13:22. Aer Lingus has a strict no-tolerance policy towards disruptive guest behaviour. The safety and security of our guests and crew remains our first priority.”
Azealia Banks #AerLingus rant… u ok hun? #PartOne pic.twitter.com/VveUw67JUn
— Rachel Mc💋 (@Rach_Mc_Tweets) January 21, 2019
This isn’t the first time Azealia made headlines for airline trouble. The rapper infamously called a flight attendant a “f***ing f***ot” when she couldn’t get off a Delta flight in Los Angeles in 2005.
Azealia says she plans on making an official complaint about her experience on the Jan. 21 Aer Lingus flight.