A tech worker from Omaha, Nebraska, has been fired following an incident that allegedly involved a Delta Airlines flight attendant being called the n-word after asking a group of passengers to wear face masks.
Delta passengers bound for New York City on Monday said a group of employees from the Omaha software firm Buildertrend allegedly became intoxicated at an airport bar after holding up the plane by refusing to wear face masks. One member of the group allegedly called a Black flight attendant the n-word when she tried to enforce the rule, according to The Omaha World-Herald.
The passengers were forced to deplane before taking off in Omaha.
“When we got on the plane, that group of Buildertrend people were seated near the rear of the plane. We were in first class, but we could all hear them,” passenger Laura Austin told the World-Herald.
Austin said that the flight attendant appeared to be “very shaken” after confronting the group.
“She told us that she asked some people to put their masks on, and someone called her the N-word,” said Austin. “She was very upset because here she is trying to do her job and that happens.”
Dan Houghton, CEO of Buildertrend, said in a statement on Wednesday that one employee had been “terminated” for behavior that did not “align with Buildertrend’s values and standards of conduct.”
Buildertrend was alerted to the incident after other passengers on the flight tagged the company in tweets about the racial slur on Monday.
“@Buildertrend one of your employees just called a flight attendant on my @Delta flight the N word & are being kicked off for that + not wearing masks,” user @StatueofIBBertY tweeted. “Pro tip: if you’re going to send a whole BDR team on a plane &…