Former Australian cricketer and member of the Channel Seven commentary team, Michael Slater, was kicked off a Qantas flight from Sydney to Wagga Wagga for yelling and swearing at two women, according to reports.
The story aired on 2GB, with Macquarie Radio digital content producer Nick Fergus detailing the exchange that saw the former cricketer removed from the plane as it boarded at the domestic airport on Sunday.
“He’s been involved in an extremely heated argument — this has been described as not a run of the mill argument — it was yelling, it was swearing and it was only getting worse as they moved to their seats,” Fergus said.
“What we’re told by witnesses is Michael removed himself from the situation and went to the bathrooms of the plane.
“As they were doing the safety briefings he remained in the bathroom, crews repeatedly asked him to come out and he refused.
“At that point the plane couldn’t take off and it was being delayed further and further and crew were forced to call airport security who boarded the plane.”
Slater seemingly confirmed the reports, issuing the following statement: “I did have an argument with two friends while boarding a flight to Wagga and I apologise for the inconvenience this caused other passengers on the flight”.
It capped off a bad week for Slater, after reports circulated that he has been dropped from the Channel Seven commentary team for this summer.
Channel Seven denied the story, which was first published in TV Blackbox, issuing a statement: “at this stage of the cricket season, Michael is working for a number of broadcasters”.
Slater moved to Channel Seven from Nine last year.
