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MO’NIQUE KICKED OFF OF UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT: Comedian says tiff with flight attendant rooted in racism.
*Before her turn as guest host on “The View” Monday, comedian Mo’Nique got into a little situation with a flight attendant during her United Airlines flight from Chicago to New York Sunday and ended up being thrown off the plane.
According to the New York Daily News, the whole thing jumped off when her hair stylist stowed a hair dryer in a first-class overhead bin. Mo’Nique was seated in First Class, but the stylist was back in coach. A flight attendant stepped to the stylist to find out why coach items were being stowed in a first-class bin. The question, itself, had Mo’Nique a little heated, but she said she kept her cool.
But, when a second flight attendant allegedly refused to believe that the hair dryer belonged to Mo’Nique, the “Phat Girlz” star said she went off.
"Tell your people that the next time they have an attitude, they are being thrown off. ... Since 9/11, we don't play around," one flight attendant allegedly told Mo'Nique.
"Are you equating my hair dryer with 9/11?" Mo'Nique said she retorted.
The exchange escalated, and soon the flight attendants were demanding that Mo’Nique and her entourage leave the plane. They were escorted back to Chicago's O'Hare Airport, where, according to the star, a supervisor called local police to complain of a "disgruntled and belligerent passenger."
"It was humiliating," Mo'Nique said of the experience, adding that one of the responding officers was black and eventually took her side.
"You can't do this to her," the officer told the United supervisor, according to the actress, who was desperate to get to New York so she could tape her two episodes of “the View.” Eventually, a sympathetic United agent at another counter booked them on the next flight.
"I felt like I was being treated like an animal," said the 38-year-old, whose full name is Mo'Nique Imes-Hicks. "This happens to black people all the time, and they don't have a voice. I have a voice."
Mo’Nique is now using that voice to call for a boycott of United Airlines.
"I won't [fly United again], and I hope no other black person will fly them either," she told the Daily News after venting her frustration on the nationally-syndicated "Steve Harvey Morning Show."
Meanwhile, United spokeswoman Jean Medina told the Daily News: "We regret that Ms. Imes felt in any way that she was not treated with courtesy and respect. There was a confrontation involving a customer that caused the flight to be delayed. When a situation occurs on a flight that causes a delay, or disruption, we must act in the best interest of all of our customers."
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