South African TV personality Shamiso Mosaka was removed from a flight from Durban to Johannesburg over her “unruly” behaviour, officials say.
Local airline CemAir said on Monday that the flight had been delayed by 90 minutes because of the influencer’s refusal to follow “safety regulations”.
It added that the pilot was forced to stop the “already running engines”.
Ms Mosaka did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment, but she did film the interaction on Instagram Live.
The influencer has over 140,000 followers on Instagram and is a presenter on the MTV Base South Africa music channel.
The video has been widely shared on social media, with many rallying behind Ms Mosaka.
In the video the influencer is asked to leave the flight by police officers, but refuses to do so until they promise to book her another flight. The airline crew refuse this request.
She tries to defend herself and attempts to rally support from other passengers to corroborate that she wasn’t being a nuisance.
Ms Mosaka then says she feels the incident is racially motivated as she claims the cabin crew have failed to adequately explain what she has done wrong.
CemAir Chief Financial Officer Laura van der Molen told local newspaper The Citizen there was no “racial profiling”.
She said that Ms Mosaka had “refused to adhere to the regulations of the airline and unfortunately had to be forcibly removed”.
The situation occurred on Sunday at King Shaka Zulu International Airport.
CemAir says the incident has been referred to the South African police and they will deal with the matter.
The airline says it “will support the police in their further investigation and potential prosecution of the matter”.
