A New York City based dentist with a roster of celebrity clients claims he was removed from an American Airlines flight for making a comment about President Donald Trump's proposed immigration policies.
On Sunday, Iranian-American dentist Shawn Sadri was planning to fly from Los Angeles to New York City after performing pre-Oscar cosmetic work on a few of his celebrity patients, reports The New York Daily News. Upon boarding the plane, Sadri says he took his seat next to a “6- or 7-year-old boy” who was visibly upset, so he began talking to the child.
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“I asked the boy, ‘Are you OK? Are you traveling alone?’” Sadri recalled. The dentist added that the boy, who Sadri believes was of Latin American descent, did not speak any English, and that no one appeared to be watching the child.
“Out of nowhere, he [the child] runs down the aisle and starts screaming!” Sadri explained.
A flight attendant approached Sadri to find out why the boy had started to cry, so Sadri says he made a joke to relieve the tension. “Maybe Trump is trying to deport him,” the dentist allegedly quipped.
But the flight attendant did not find Sadri’s remark amusing. She shot back at him, saying “Don’t say that,” Sadri recalls.
According to Sadri, he then replied, “Fine, you must be a Trump supporter,” to which she said “What if I am?”
“So I said, ‘If you are, you are, but you’re also incompetent and need to do your job,'" Sadri says. "Why am I dealing with this kid?’”
Sadri claimed that two more flight attendants came to the crewmember’s aid before he was ultimately booted from the aircraft by a "nice" security team.
Still, Sadri believes the crew was unfairly biased against him because of his heritage.
“I wasn’t yelling, I wasn’t swearing, it was 6 a.m., I hadn’t been drinking,” says Sadri, whose celebrity clients include “Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paul and Olympian Gabby Douglas. “I’m a New Yorker — I’m not going to back down — and I was born a Muslim in Iran. I do think all those things played into it.”
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A spokesman for American Airlines confirmed to Fox News that Sadri was removed from Sunday’s Flight 292, although he would not go into detail about why the individual was asked to deplane.
“A passenger was removed from our 6:00 a.m. PT flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to New York (JFK) Sunday for being disruptive and not following crewmember instructions,” the spokesman told Fox News via email.
“The passenger was rebooked, and flew, on the 7:00 a.m. PT flight to JFK.”