CNN
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Terrell Davis The NFL Hall of Famer and his family were looking forward to a vacation in California when they were handcuffed and removed from a United Airlines flight without cause.
“My dignity was taken from me. I was powerless. There was nothing I could do,” the two-time Super Bowl champion told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday.
The incident happened Saturday toward the end of a flight from Denver to Orange County, California. Davis, 51, was flying with his wife, two sons and a daughter when one of his sons asked for ice during drink service, Davis wrote. InstagramThe flight attendant “either did not hear or ignored his request and continued walking past our row,” the post said.
“I calmly reached back and tapped her on the arm, reminding her to ask for more ice for my son,” Davis wrote.
“He yelled, ‘Don’t hit me,’ got off the cart and quickly approached the front of the aircraft. I was confused, and so was the passenger in front of me who witnessed the exchange. I didn’t think anything of it other than that this employee was incredibly rude and that the accusation that I had hit him was patently false.”
Davis said he did not see or speak to any flight attendants for the remainder of the flight. After the plane landed in Orange County, the pilot asked passengers to remain in their seats, and FBI and law enforcement officers went to Davis’ seat, handcuffed him, and removed him from the plane. The scene was “videotaped by multiple passengers,” he wrote.
“My sons were there. My daughter was there. My wife was there,” he told CNN. “It’s strange what’s going on. They didn’t ask me any questions. I didn’t even get a chance to explain.”
Davis’ wife, Tamiko Davis, said she knew her husband couldn’t even question why he was being handcuffed and taken away.
“Terrell knows better. Unfortunately, historically, in these situations, as a black man interacting with police … you can’t ask,” she told CNN. “So thankfully, my husband had the capacity, the integrity and the understanding to know that in that moment, his only option was to sit back, submit and be humiliated in front of his sons and 200 people … however many people were on that plane. They gave him no other choice.”
His wife and children had to “fend for themselves.”
Davis said he tries to be a good example to his children and teach them to do the right thing, which made the sight of him being handcuffed and taken away all the more heartbreaking.
“We did the right thing. We did nothing. Yet I was handcuffed, taken off the plane and treated like a prisoner,” Davis said.
After Davis was taken off the plane, “we were just left to fend for ourselves on the plane with everybody staring at us,” Davis’ wife told ABC’s “Good Morning America” early Wednesday morning.
“During subsequent questioning, the investigator correctly determined that the flight attendant’s accusations were inaccurate and offered a profuse apology,” Davis wrote.
“We have removed the flight attendant from duty while we review the matter,” United Airlines said in an email to CNN on Monday evening.
“This is clearly not the travel experience we strive to provide. We have reached out to Mr. Davis’ team and apologized,” United’s email said.
Davis told “GMA” on Wednesday morning that he was still waiting for a direct apology from United Airlines.
“They have not contacted me to apologise,” he told ABC. “They have contacted my lawyers, but I have not heard from them directly, and that to me is an issue.”
CNN reached out to United Airlines for comment following Davis’ comments on Wednesday. A United Airlines spokesperson said they had “nothing new to share.”
“We have to hold ourselves to different standards.”
The Davises said they don’t know the race of the flight attendants, but they are teaching their sons to be aware of the brutal reality that black men often face.
“There is no undoing the traumatic experience of my two sons, daughter and wife watching me be handcuffed without any due process or explanation,” Davis wrote on Instagram.
“I certainly felt like if I was white, this wouldn’t have happened,” Davis told CNN. “That’s how I felt. Whether that’s true or not is another story.”
The FBI’s Los Angeles field office confirmed Monday that agents and law enforcement partners were responding to reports of an incident on a plane that landed at John Wayne Airport in Orange County on Saturday. The FBI office said the person who was detained for questioning “is cooperative with law enforcement and has been released to continue his travels.”
Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI field office, said the FBI would not release details of the case or the names of people who may have been interviewed unless charges are filed.
Parker Stinner, managing partner of the Chicago law firm representing Davis, told CNN this week that what happened on the flight was “horrifying and disturbing to say the least.”
“We will be thoroughly investigating what happened and have been proactively reaching out to United Airlines regarding this matter,” Stinner wrote.
Now, instead of spending the holidays with her children, Davis told GMA that she wants to use her influence to raise awareness about abuse and “make a difference.”
As one of eight running backs Rushed for over 2,000 yards in an NFL seasonDavis played seven seasons in the NFL from 1995-2001 (all with the Broncos), helping the Broncos win two Super Bowls in January 1998 and January 1999.
he Best Player The first title match He ran for 157 yards and three touchdowns. He played in the Broncos’ 31-24 win over the Green Bay Packers. A three-time Pro Bowl selection, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017.
But Davis said that despite their celebrity, he and other black men are often treated differently.
Davis wants his sons to remain open-minded if they feel they are perceived differently. “I always try to go through a checklist of possibilities, and I always try to consider race as the last possibility,” he told CNN.
“But I always tell them, ‘What applies to other people doesn’t necessarily apply to you,'” he said. “We always try to teach them that there are consequences, but we’re held to a different standard.”
CNN’s Jason Hanna, Raja Razek, Cindy von Quednow and Kelly McCreary contributed to this report.
