Drama ensued on a recent United Airlines flight where rapper DJ Drama was removed from the plane for no apparent reason other than apparently filming another passenger being removed from the plane. DJ Drama, whose real name is Tyree Simmons, was removed from a United Airlines bound for Houston.
Simmons posted a series of videos to Instagram that captures much of the conversation between him, flight attendants, a United supervisor, and several police officers.
Details are scant, but according to Drama and to Rolling Out, he was removed from the flight for filming another passenger being removed from the flight (see the first video below) and a possible alleged mask violation. As he was filming the passenger a female flight attendant ordered him to stop filming and it would appear he complied. It’s unclear what this other passenger was being removed from the flight for.
Video 1: Filming another passenger being removed
A second recording picks up where a United supervisor engages in a conversation with Simmons about whether he will keep his mask on the entirety of the flight. Simmons replies he will. The United reps acknowledges this, informs the FA, who, according to Simmons, still asks for the police.
Video 2: Interaction between Simmons and supervisor
A 3rd video picks up an interaction between Simmons and the supervisor where they ask him to step off the plane to talk to police on the jet bridge. Simmons asks if he is being kicked off the plane. The supervisor informs him he is not being removed and that the police just want to talk to him. Simmons tells the supervisor no and that he wants to talk to the police from his seat on the plane.
Eventually, after a calm discussion between all parties, Simmons gets up, grabs his bag, and steps off the plane – still believing he is not being kicked off the plane.
Once off the plane, he is informed the captain has removed him from the flight. Simmons lets the officers and the United supervisor know he is uploading it to his 1.1. million IG followers.
Video 3: Interaction between Simmons and law enforcement
During the entire time Simmons was recording he appears to remain extremely calm, despite appearing to have been misled, perhaps even lied to, by the supervisor and police officers about his impending removal.
It’s unclear what really prompted the FA and captain to have him removed. Was he not wearing a mask for a time and the FA was uncomfortable with him possibly not doing so again later in the flight? Was he being difficult in some other fashion? From the videos above we just don’t know.
More details to be shared as they become available.
1 comment
This is really inconceivable that UA staff could not see that this gentleman was not going to be belligerent nor noncompliant, so it made zero sense to lie to him and then kick him off the aircraft. Just incredibly poor judgment, because airlines benefit when a passenger captures images of the airline removing passengers who won’t utilize masks. People want the airlines to do this and this passenger was capturing that. Maybe there is more to the story, but the video isn’t good.