A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a viral Ethiopian Airlines denied boarding video. I wanted to provide an update, as this situation has evolved in an interesting way — first the airline defended itself, and now the victim is speaking out as well against the carrier’s defense.
CNN correspondent shares “disgraceful” Ethiopian Airlines video
This incident happened on Friday, July 19, 2024, and involves an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa (ADD) to Nairobi (NBO). Specifically, we’re talking about flight ET308, scheduled to depart at 11:15PM, and operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8.
Traveling in business class on this flight was CNN International Correspondent Larry Madowo (who generally seems like an awesome guy, by the way — I’m a sucker for CNN International). He took to Twitter/X to share the following with his 2.7 million followers:
Ethiopian Airlines kicked out a passenger on my flight because a minister took her seat. They didn’t apologize and they eventually forcefully offloaded her screaming. The minister did nothing. Disgraceful
It was almost 11.30pm and the next flight to Nairobi was the following day. The Ethiopian minister saw her fighting and he just sat there.
I had fallen asleep and was woken up by the commotion. She wanted this to go viral
There’s a 37-second video clip accompanying the above text, which shows a woman at the door of the aircraft. There’s not much context, but she says things like “I can’t do this because it’s your favorite people,” and “everyone is a taxpayer,” and “the minister is getting off.”
So the claim seems to be that this woman was kicked off the flight so that a seat could be given to some government minister. Obviously if that were true, the frustration would be warranted. On social media, people have called for boycotts of Ethiopian Airlines over this incident.
It’s especially tricky to know what to make of this when the person who made this incident viral is someone who “was woken up by the commotion,” so seemingly didn’t initially have much context for this, despite calling this “disgraceful.”
Ethiopian Airlines responds to accusations
Following the incident, Ethiopian Airlines took to social media, to share the company’s version of what happened. Let me just share the statement in full:
Ethiopian Airlines has watched the circulation of a viral video on various social media platforms depicting a passenger being removed from flight ET308 on July 19th, from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. We took the necessary time to investigate the matter thoroughly and bring the factual information to the public. On the date mentioned above, the flight experienced an overbooking situation.
Three individuals with standby economy class boarding pass arrived at the boarding gate just a few minutes before the scheduled departure time of the flight. The Boarding Agent advised them that the flight was full and they would be protected on the next flight.
However, they ignored the advice of the Boarding Agent and attempted to board the aircraft bypassing security personnel at the boarding gate. Our staff members courteously asked these passengers to disembark. One passenger acquiesced to this request, while the remaining two were escorted off the aircraft by security due to non-compliance.
It is pertinent to mention that these passengers were booked in economy class, and their seating was in no way influenced by the presence of a non-Ethiopian national VIP passenger in business class. Ethiopian Airlines follows a standard protocol wherein VIPs, Business Class Passengers, and Platinum ShebaMiles members are allowed to board subsequent to the seating of all other passengers.
A misapprehension arose among the standby passengers, leading to the distorted belief that their seats had been allocated to a VIP. This is not the case, and the circulating video does not reflect the true sequence of events.
We extend our gratitude to our patrons for allowing us the chance to clarify these circumstances before forming any judgments. Ethiopian Airlines is dedicated to the safety and well-being of all our passengers and to the adherence of our established operational guidelines.
The passengers affected by the overbooking were protected on the next available flight. We appreciate your understanding in this matter.
Obviously this paints a very different picture of what happened. On the surface, Ethiopian Airlines’ statement checks out for the most part. If this woman was supposed to be in economy while the minister was in business class, it’s not in any way clear how the two things would be connected. She she bumped from economy, and then other people downgraded from business class to economy, to make sense for the minister? That seems complex…
However, I do find this part of Ethiopian Airlines’ statement to be a bit suspicious:
Three individuals with standby economy class boarding pass arrived at the boarding gate just a few minutes before the scheduled departure time of the flight.
If they were on standby, why does it matter when they arrived at the gate? If the flight was full, the flight was full. Maybe the airline is just oversharing information here, but it also makes me wonder if they just arrived at the gate too late, and their seats were given away. Even so, that shouldn’t have anything to do with the minister in business class.
CNN correspondent responds to Ethiopian Airlines
So, there’s now an interesting additional update. Larry Madowo, the same CNN journalist who made this viral in the first place, tracked down Aisha, the passenger in the viral video, and interviewed her. Now this is good and interesting journalism!
Aisha claims that the airline is lying, and states the following:
- Aisha claims she wasn’t a standby passenger, and that she had confirmed tickets that she booked on March 5, with seats assigned
- Aisha had checked bags, and only at the gate (and not at check-in) was she informed that she was no longer confirmed on the flight, but was on standby
- The airline never apologized to her or reached out to her at all
- She said the reason she knew there was a minister on the plane was because an Ethiopian Airlines staff member told her that an important minister booking at the last minute was the reason that she wasn’t on the flight
- Once off the plane (after the incident captured on video), the police was called, and she was forced to delete the videos she had taken; she was told that she’d be rebooked on the next flight, but was only rebooked 24 hours later, and wasn’t given hotel accommodation
Bottom line
An Ethiopian Airlines situation is going viral, whereby it was claimed that someone was kicked off a flight in order to accommodate a government minister. The video was viewed tens of millions of times, with many calling on a boycott of the airline.
The airline responded to this incident with a completely different version of events. The company claims that the woman was traveling standby in economy, and there was no room to accommodate her. According to the airline, there was a minister in business class, but that had nothing to do with her situation. So she decided to storm the jet, and was then removed.
However, she then responded to that by claiming that she had a confirmed ticket, and that staff even told her that the reason she was bumped from the flight was due to the government minister.
I’m not sure what exactly to make of this, but I did want to post the update, to be balanced, and share both sides of the story.
What do you make of this Ethiopian Airlines situation?
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