/ 11 February 2008

ANC MP denies being kicked off SAA flight

An African National Congress (ANC) MP on Monday denied being booted off a South African Airways (SAA) flight after an alleged drunken argument with another passenger.

Frans Tlokwe Maserumule said he left the plane willingly after the incident, which took place before the flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town took off.

”I was not drunk … I walked out willingly, with no escort, no policemen, nothing. And I went straight to the police station to report the incident. I voluntarily left the plane,” he said on Monday.

Maserumule, a member of Parliament’s portfolio committee on safety and security, said he had been drinking before the flight but was not drunk.

He expressed surprise at the media attention the incident was receiving. He was responding to a 702 Eyewitness News report that he was booted off the flight after he had argued with another passenger.

The report said the MP denied being drunk when he bumped into another passenger, sparking the argument.

SAA spokesperson Robyn Chalmers confirmed the incident, which took place on Wednesday last week, saying Maserumule was ”offloaded” from the flight. — Sapa