The curious case of Amir Khan
What do his words say?
British boxer Amir Khan has been in the news after being removed from a flight in the US. Khan says he had done nothing wrong, American Airlines say two passengers refused to comply with repeated crew requests. Khan told his story to Sky News today.
“Tell me what happened on that plane
So eh I got on the plane and em I was sat on seat number 1a and 1b was my friend, my colleague who was coming to training camp with me. And em As soon as I was on the plane I was eh I was on a phone call and the the lady came over to eh a stewar.. a stewardess said to me to go eh to take eh put my phone call down, which I did, I put it down, I had my mask on everything was fine.
My friend erm must have been drinking some water, put his mask down a little bit, had a sip of water, and the lady then came and said “please you need to put your mask up’ he had it he must have been a little bit lower than his erm.. just below his nose. And erm so he fixed that and then the plane’s moving now so I’m leaning on the side of the window and erm fall, trying to fall asleep and, erm I was on my way to Colorado for my training camp and then the plane for some reason stops and when it stops, I I pull up the window just to see what’s happened and erm before you know it the doors open up and three officers walk in and eh the the air stewardess tells us to “please can you leave”.. eh can me and my friend leave
I had done no, nothing wrong you know, my mask was always up. And I just didn’t feel that I got treated so badly eh… it was quite embarrassing standing up eh in front of a full plane and I think even they were shocked that you know, why were the police in, in the aeroplane and why are they taking those two young boys who are sitting literally right there at the front and erm you got literally taken out and erm they just said that we were not paying attention to instructions”
Let’s break it down
There are plenty of flags here to suggest some parts of what happened are not being told. Several times Khan stutters over words or corrects himself, a sign that he’s having to think hard about exactly which words to choose. When you’re telling a full account of something it should flow much more easily.
The tense changes throughout. There’s quite a bit in the past tense but a few phrases in the present tense which is not what you expect when hearing an account of what has happened. “The planes moving now”, “I’m leaning on the side of the window”.
Two people in the story change status. First is Khan’s travelling companion , first he’s described as a friend which is quickly corrected to colleague and becomes a friend again later. Perhaps it was decided that colleague sounded more professional and less likely to be the type of person who would refuse to follow cabin crew instructions.
Next is the crew member, as the story goes on she is at first “the lady” then “the stewardess” and finally an “air stewardess”. This would be in keeping with someone getting more and more authoritative over the situation. The lady asks nicely if you could put your phone down, the stewardess asks firmly for you to wear your mask properly and the air stewardess asks you to leave the flight.
Khan is at great pains to point out his status in this version of events. He mentions his training camp twice, once when it has no relevance at all to the story. He also is sure to mention he has front row seats, again it has no relevance.
Khan goes on to mention how he disliked having his status taken away, saying he was embarrassed to be thrown off the flight I’m front of so many people.
There are more flags in there but that’s enough to be sure there are more questions to ask about his story.
Conclusion
Khan does not once refute any of the allegations of the airline. He tells a story which doesn’t flow and has missing periods of time in it.
If I had to take a guess I’d say there was a lot more interaction with the cabin crew member and that Khan thought his status as a boxer and first class passenger should have got him more leeway than it did.
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