James Corden was captured having an exchange with British Airways staff members after he and his fellow passengers were subjected to a chaotic travel experience.
Some reports initially claimed that the 45-year-old entertainer, who was once banned from a New York restaurant for his “abusive” behavior, was chiding the staffers at the airport.
However, a passenger defended the star and said he wasn’t chastising the employees, as the viral photos suggest. She also said the actor did his best to lift the spirits of his fellow flyers after their upsetting experience with the airline.
James Corden was showered with praise by a fellow passenger for the way he handled a nightmarish travel experience
Vanessa, who revealed that she was on the same flight as the former Late Late Show host, said that they were flying from Faro, Portugal, to London Heathrow when the turn of events took place.
About 45 minutes after departure, the plane was still circling mid-air and had not reached the required altitude, she said.
The passengers eventually heard the pilot announcing that they were making an emergency landing in Lisbon.
“It was something along the lines of, ‘Gather your possessions as best you can, take off your shoes, and when you’re told to by the airplane staff, please adopt the [brace] position and when we land if you’re able, please find your nearest emergency exit and vacate the plane,’” Vanessa told Metro.
“Soon, however, the staff on the plane assured the passengers that they would no longer have to assume the [brace] position. Basically, what had happened was the flaps on the airplane wing which are supposed to go down when you are in the air won’t go down, which meant that they wouldn’t be able to raise them on landing,” she continued.
The unexpected turn of events took place on a British Airways flight that took off from Faro, Portugal, and was meant to land in London Heathrow
Following the emergency landing in the Portuguese capital, the aircraft was reportedly stalled on the tarmac for another three hours with the passengers inside.
All the while, the comedian tried to keep the fellow passengers in good spirits as he walked up and down the aisle, cracking jokes and posing for selfies.
“He walked up and down the aisles talking to people, and let everybody take a selfie with him,” Vanessa told the outlet.
She revealed a fun exchange that she had herself with the Gavin and Stacey star.
“I made a joke and went, ‘Oh if we’re all going to die. You could tell us how does the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special end?’ and he went, ‘Do you really want to know?’ and I went, ‘Yeah.’ He went, ‘I can’t tell you.’ Then he said, ‘But do you want to know what happened on the fishing trip?’ and I was like, ‘Yes! I do!’ and he was like, ‘I can’t tell you that either,’” she recalled.
Viral photos appeared to show the English actor chiding the employees, but a fellow flyer revealed that the reality was different
The passenger was happy to see the famous presenter having some fun exchanges with the travelers despite their flight journey taking a disastrous turn.
“He was just really nice, he would have been well within his rights to sit and sulk in his seat like the rest of us would be doing but he didn’t,” she continued.
After three hours on the tarmac, the flight was deemed unsafe for travel, leading to the passengers being ushered to the airport to deal with a longer delay.
Vanessa said there was no British Airline staff to direct them at the airport after they disembarked from the aircraft.
James was captured having an exchange with airport staff, and even though he looked unhappy, the woman said it was a feeling all the passengers were experiencing after the disappointing events.
“So then BA finally let us off the plane. We’re in the terminal and there was not a member of BA staff to be found. And they put us in immigration queues. And there was just no one there telling us what was going on,” she said.
The passenger pointed out that the comedian was merely asking for more information when the now-viral pictures of him were captured
“The people he’s speaking to in that picture are the flight staff on our plane. I watched him fist bump the pilot as he got off the plane, he said, ‘Thank you very much,’” she said.
The woman’s description of the situation made it seem like the This Life of Mine with James Corden host was the voice of reason. She claimed the pictures depicted the moment where he spoke to the flight staff about the passengers standing in the wrong queue, after which the employees “got [them] moved into the right immigration queues,” Vanessa said.
As per her recollection of the events, the famous father-of-three even came to the tired passengers’ defense when they found out that only club flyers or gold flyers would get free hotel rooms for the night.
“James was a club flyer and he stood there, and was like, ‘What about all these people who’ve got all these kids with them?’ like saying that’s not acceptable. It’s not right,” she said.
All the British Airways customers were forced to stay an extra day and catch another flight the following day.
The former Late Late Show host’s handling of the air travel drama was starkly different from another 2022 incident, which led to a restaurant owner banning him from his business for his “abusive” behavior
“We all turned up the next day. We were told to turn up at 9:30 for a flight which actually was again delayed by over two hours and James Corden stood in the same queue as everybody else, doing the same things as everybody else did,” Vanessa said.
Calling him a “lovely guy,” she also said, “I saw him let women and children in front of him. He was a really nice guy both times.”
The former talk show host’s handling of the air travel drama was starkly different from past behavior that once had him banned from a New York restaurant.
Keith McNally, the owner of Balthazar in New York City, slammed the entertainer in 2022 for being “the most abusive customer” to ever walk into his business.
“James Corden is a Hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man,” he wrote on social media. “And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.”
“I don’t often 86 a customer, to today I 86’d Corden. It did not make me laugh,” he added.
The restaurant owner later revealed that the actor “apologized profusely” for his conduct, and the ban on him from the restaurant was withdrawn.
Other passengers in the comments section came to the entertainer’s defense and said he was “being lovely and jovial with the cabin crew”
