Following the viral video of media personality Shamiso Mosaka being asked to exit the plane for reasons she believed were racist, CemAir has now released a statement to give their take on the incident.
Shamiso took to Instagram Live to record her encounter with CemAir staff, who then requested the presence of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The incident took place on Sunday on flight 5Z0329 at King Shaka International Airport.
In a portion of the video, Shamiso is seen sitting in her seat, surrounded by police officials. After being asked to remove herself from the aircraft, Shamiso says, “I’m not getting off the flight unless I’m booked another one. I paid for this.”
She adds, “I have not once been vulgar, or inappropriate, or disruptive, or disrespectful to anyone on this plane. Please ask the people.”
The MTV Base presenter felt the reasons behind the airline staff wanting to kick her off the plane were racially charged after she swore while talking on her phone.
Shamiso being discriminated by a flight attendant because she said “wtf” on the phone.
Passengers defending her, while cops and airline personnel are asking her to leave the flight. #Bbmzanzi Nozipho #TrackingThaboBester SAFA #Nandipha Alstro Nunurai pic.twitter.com/11amcOkx6p
— Izidabazabantu (@izidabazabantu) March 17, 2024
Heading over to X (formerly Twitter) to explain their side of the story, a statement shared by the airline described Shamiso as a “late boarded passenger” who was “unruly and abusive, refusing to follow the lawful instructions of the cabin crew member.”
The statement further read, “When the cabin crew member determined that she was unable to reason with the passenger, she informed the Captain … When the Captain could not reason with the passenger either, the matter was handed over to the South Africa Police Service and the passenger was removed from the aircraft.”
CemAir also states that Shamiso freed herself from the police escort and attempted to enter the aircraft flight deck, which is a serious offence.
The statement concluded with an apology to passengers and shared that the flight was delayed by 90 minutes due to the incident.
18 March 2024, JOHANNESBURG
Incident on CemAir Aircraft on 17 March 2024 pic.twitter.com/qjsI6mg5Zj
— FlyCemAir (@FlyCemAir) March 18, 2024
However, according to a few passengers, the above statement did not correspond with what they witnessed.
On the online review platform Hello Peter, one person named Muzi S shared their account of what had transpired:
“We experienced very horrible behaviour from the CemAir staff when a young lady got thrown out a flight because some Indian air hostess named Shamika said she was being disruptive.
“What is surprising is that we were sitting next to her and she never disrupted us but she was thrown out because she was disruptive, not knowing to whom.”
Muzi continued, “The hostess and the pilot even got the nerve to come back and shout at us, telling us we would be taken out as we were standing up for the lady.”
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