Sandra “Pepa” Denton, one half of the hit group Salt-N-Pepa, claims she was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight and treated like a criminal.
The famous rapper spoke about the incident on Wednesday. “TMZ Live.” Denton said she bought two seats on a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Nashville on Monday. She said she needed the extra seat to give her injured knee more room. When she removed her protective brace to stretch her leg, she said a flight attendant approached her and berated her for taking up two seats on the plane. That's when things allegedly took another turn.
The famous hip-hop star claims that the airline allowed the man to board the flight even though it was full, and that the man suddenly approached her. He claimed he needed an extra seat to go to a funeral. She questioned his story further to make sure he wasn't lying about the funeral. She claims that she saw his lip tremble and that he refused to double down, which she interpreted as a lie.
Just as Denton was preparing to speak out about the incident, she says, a flight attendant approached her and demanded she be removed from the plane. Denton says she immediately felt wronged because she was calm and had done nothing to deserve being removed from the plane, and began recording what was happening, as seen in the TMZ video.
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JULY 2: Sandra “Pepa” Denton and Cheryl “Salt” James of Salt-N-Pepa perform onstage during Night 3 of the 2023 ESSENCE Festival of Culture™ at Caesars Superdome on July 2, 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Denton said the next thing she knew, police were meeting her at the gate and escorting her out of the airport, and she still doesn't understand why.
“Is this for me? I thought it was amazing.”
“They were waiting to get me out of the airport!” Denton cried.
According to TMZ, another passenger, Shannon McCormack, who was in the same row as Denton, independently reported witnessing the incident and corroborating Denton's claims that Denton remained calm the entire time. McCormack also said that the flight attendant became agitated when Denton began recording and yelled, “Denton, get off!”
According to TMZ, Southwest Airlines refunded Denton $2,500 for both seats.
According to TMZ, since she was no longer the holder of a valid ticket at the time the refund was issued, the airline said it's standard policy for police to escort passengers out of the building if they don't have a ticket. (RELATED: Chrissy Teigen Opens Up About Scary Plane Incident)
According to TMZ, the famous rapper was asked to leave the plane after disobeying flight attendants' instructions, but did not elaborate on what instructions she disobeyed. Denton suggested that the matter would be handled by her lawyer going forward.
