A professional boxing star claims he was thrown off an American Airlines flight after a woman complained about the Saudi Arabia flag he was carrying and the captain agreed with her. This is egregious if the events onboard unfolded as he claims.

Boxer Removed From American Airlines Flight After Woman…And Captain…Were Afraid Of His Saudi Arabia Flag

Seat Gibbons was flying from Mexico City to El Paso, Texas via Dallas on American Airlines. He was booked on United Airlines earlier in the afternoon via Houston, but missed the flight and rebooked on AA.

He was carrying a flag of Mexico and Saudi Arabia and was in Mexico to promote an upcoming fight in Saudi Arabia (which has invested heavily in sports like boxing and golf as part of its effort to diversify its economy).

Onboard, he placed the flags in the seatback pocket. Five minutes later, a flight attendant came up to him and asked him to place the flags in the overhead bin, telling him that a female passenger was uncomfortable with the Saudi Arabia flag.

He complied.

But 10 minutes later, two security guards came onboard and approached Gibbons with the flight attendant. Gibbons was told that the captain would not fly with him, viewing him as a “security risk.”

He was asked to step off the aricraft and complied.

He tells his story below:

pic.twitter.com/NZlTG0c3Sn

— Sean Gibbons (@KnuckleheadSean) April 14, 2024

Gibbons, who claims to be a 1.8 MillionMiler flyer with Premier 1K status on United Airlines, ended up flying United Airlines back to Texas and even filmed a video of one of the United pilots posing with the Saudi and Mexican flags.

Hey American Airlines – You threw me off the plane in Mexico City because some women complained about my Saudi Arabia flag ! Your ignorant pilot said I was a security threat ! Well Viva United Airlines the Best and only airline to fly 1-K Sean Gibbons pic.twitter.com/JLYN279tlM

— Sean Gibbons (@KnuckleheadSean) April 12, 2024

Looks folks, you may not support Saudi Arabia or its government, but throwing someone off a plane for carrying a Saudi flag is a disgusting overreaction. And it appears the captain never tried to understand the situation, instead just giving in to a bigoted passenger clouded by ignorance. I’m so sick of the “security risk” canard that is pulled to justify fear and paranoia.

Saudi Arabia, like so many nations, is complicated…but whatever your views may be on the Kingdom does not justify telling someone to hide his Saudi flag, let alone kick him off a plane.

CONCLUSION

We’ve asked American Airlines to clarify if anything else happened onboard to justify Gibbon’s ejection…but it sounds like it was just another case of “speech for me, but not for thee” and a whole lot of ignorance on display. I might be able to understand it coming from one passenger, but I cannot tolerate it coming from a captain.