Amir Khan removed from US flight over face coverings row

Daniel Brown

The police were present, but did not need to intervene

Amir Khan has been removed from a flight in the US after the British boxer was reportedly involved in a dispute about face masks.

The former unified light-welterweight world champion claimed that he and a colleague were removed from an American Airlines plane following a complaint that his friend’s face mask “was not high enough”.

The 34-year-old – who said that he was flying to a training camp in Colorado after time in New York – took to Twitter to post a video where he stated that he was “disgusted” with how he had been treated.

Disgusted to be banned by @AmericanAir and @traveloneworld for not been able to fly to training camp, i got escorted by police off the plane for no reason. I would like to see evidence for any wrong doings! #AAteam #Notallterrorists pic.twitter.com/dL3UfFcYYl

— Amir Khan (@amirkingkhan) September 18, 2021

“I was taken off the plane today when I was going to training camp to Colorado Springs, by the police,” said Khan.

“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.

“Now I have to reschedule another airplane to travel back to training camp which is really upsetting, for no reason this was and I’m just so disgusted that American Airlines would do this to us and ban me from travelling.”

The airline involved said that the flight from Newark Airport to Dallas-Fort Worth returned to the gate after two people “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”.

“Our customer relations team is reaching out to Mr Khan to learn more about his experience and reinforce the importance of policies implemented for the safety of our customers and crew,” said a spokesman for American Airlines.

It added that “per protocol”police were present when the aircraft returned to the gate, but they did not need to intervene when both passengers were asked to exit the plane.

Neither Mr Khan or his colleague have been banned from the airline, the statement added.

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