‘Disruptive incident.’ DJ Drama kicked off flight out of Miami — and he took live video
High drama alert at Miami International Airport over the weekend.
DJ Drama was on a flight from Miami to Houston for a pre-Grammy gig Saturday morning when trouble began over the societal issue du jour: mask wearing.
In a series of videos posted to his Instagram, the mega-producer shows what went down in real time on the United flight. He starts by filming a male flight attendant standing over him, telling him to turn his phone off. Drama says no.
Then the attendant reminds the entertainer he must wear his mask. “Do you have any medical issues? You’re going to keep it on the whole flight?”
Drama replies that he will comply.
“So, you’re good?”
“Yes, sir.”
But then after consulting a female attendant off camera, the same United employee tells the mixtape king to “step off the plane, please.”
Over the intercom, the female attendant tells passengers, “Is anybody else going to wear their mask incorrectly? I do need it to cover both your mouth and your nose. This is United policy, thank you.”
Soon a bunch of police officers are on the scene, as the DJ calmly tells them he was told he could stay on the plane if he wore a mask.
The officers look over his ID as he continues to calmly relay that he was told he could stay on board. He also mentions that this footage is going out to millions of people on social media.
Cops at last tell Drama (real name: Tyree Simmons) that the plane’s captain has the final say and that the music promoter has to disembark.
The Atlanta resident, 42, is escorted off the aircraft by officers, who tell him this type of thing happens all the time and he won’t be arrested.
In a later clip, Drama shows his 1.1 million followers the real reason he thinks he was asked to exit — because he was filming a woman ousted earlier and was told to stop filming by staff.
The music man eventually got to his destination on another airline, Delta, and gave the carrier a shout-out from the festive Texas gig.
A United Airlines spokesman confirmed to the Miami Herald what happened: “On Saturday, United flight 2017 from Miami to Houston returned to the gate to remove three customers — two for causing a disruptive incident and one for not complying with flight attendant instructions,” according to Monday’s statement. “Soon after, the flight departed for Houston.”
The third person who was reportedly removed is not seen in Drama’s videos.
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 1:15 PM.
