Salt-N-Pepa member Sandra “Pepa” Denton documented an incident in which she was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday.
The 59-year-old rapper shared a video on Instagram showing the aftermath of the confrontation, after she had already stepped off the plane.
In the video, in which she speaks to employees, she claims the problem arose after one of the employees asked her about having two chairs.
Denton also claimed that another man asked for her seat, and apparently got it after she was escorted off the plane.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, Southwest said: “Our flight crews are responsible for the safety and comfort of all passengers in the cabin. With that in mind, they refused to allow the customer to board and her ticket was refunded.”
Salt-N-Pepa member Sandra “Pepa” Denton documented an incident in which she was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday.
Instagram video showed after-the-fact confrontation with Southwest employees, claiming she was told off for having a second seat despite having purchased it
A lawyer for Denton declined to comment.
The musician took the plane to a meeting in Nashville, and she often chooses the same flight because she said it’s the only direct flight to the music-centric city from Vegas, according to TMZ.
She said she opted to buy two seats because of a leg injury she sustained in a car accident in 2018, and had a receptionist walk her to the plane door in a wheelchair.
Southwest Airlines is known for allowing passengers to choose their own seat when they board the plane. Customers do not have to choose a seat in advance and pay extra for less comfortable seats, as most other airlines do.
Denton claims she was approached by a man, who was seen in the video speaking to her, about the reason she had two chairs.
He claimed in the video that he asked her because he didn’t see a cast or brace, even though she had a brace with her and reportedly put it on after the conversation.
It is unclear whether the employee was aware that Denton had purchased tickets for two seats, or whether he was under the impression that she was using a second seat without paying for it due to a perceived medical condition.
However, he notes in the video that Southwest has a policy of allowing oversized customers to be given a second seat in some cases. However, he told Denton that she wasn’t “taking up” the seat next to her, so he assumed that wasn’t the reason she had a seat.
The video doesn’t make it clear exactly why Pepa was removed from the plane after that first encounter. She says in the clip that a man asked for her seat, and then the employee who first questioned her says she was removed for filming on the plane.
She told TMZ that she bought a second chair because of a leg injury from a car accident years earlier. But Denton said employees questioned her about having a second chair.
She claimed a male passenger asked for her seat because he was going to a “funeral,” but he refused to provide her with proof. An employee (pictured) claimed to Denton that she was removed because she was filming the crew
Southwest did not respond to a question about its policy on passengers filming their interactions with crew.
Denton responded that she had never filmed on the plane, claiming that she was only having a phone conversation with her assistant and that she only started filming when she got off the plane.
However, it did not appear that the workers would reverse the decision. Together with another woman, who Denton said was involved in the commotion, they tried to convince her to leave the gangway to the plane, because the plane was about to take off and the gangway would start moving.
Towards the end of the clip, she screams loudly at the employee after pointing her camera at the exit, but it’s unclear whether he touched her as she slowly walked away.
During the altercation, Denton’s two tickets were held up to the camera to prove she had paid for both seats. Southwest has since refunded them.
The airline did not respond to questions about whether it had contacted Denton regarding the incident, but she told TMZ it was considering possible legal action against the airline.
In her video, she talked about a male passenger who asked her to give up her second seat.
Speaking to TMZ, Denton claimed the man told her he needed the second seat because he was going to a funeral. It’s unclear whether there were any other seats available on the flight at the time he asked.
The rapper said she tried to explain to the man that she had the seat due to an injury, and that other passengers began arguing over whether or not she should give up her seat after paying extra for it.
She apparently found the man’s story suspicious and Pepa said she asked him to swear he was flying to a funeral, but she claims he refused and gave her no proof he was going to a funeral.
She notes that her assistant urged her to record the entire ordeal, but she claims she didn’t.
She was then told by staff to leave the plane, but she claims no reason was given for her removal.
Denton claims that after the man asked for her seat, the crew attempted to move her to an emergency exit row, but because she was injured and disabled, they could not have helped her in an emergency.
The rapper said she got her $2,500 for tickets back, but lost out on her fee to be taken to the plane in a wheelchair and her fee for a taxi service in Nashville. She said she is exploring legal options; pictured in NYC in 2021
According to Denton, the man who claimed he needed her second paid seat ended up getting it after she was thrown off the plane.
It’s unclear what role the man played in her eviction, but the Salt-N-Pepa member also claimed that flight attendants tried to move her to a seat near the emergency exit, where she couldn’t have been seated because her injuries would have made her unable to assist with an emergency evacuation.
She explained that she could have rescheduled the meeting in Nashville, but she had paid for the taxi to take her to the plane, and she had lost the $500 she had paid for the taxi service at her destination.
However, Denton said Southwest refunded the $2,500 she paid for her tickets.