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LOS ANGELES: “30 Rock” star Alec Baldwin flew into a rage on Twitter after an American Airlines flight attendant booted him off a plane for playing an online game during preparations for takeoff.
“Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving,” he tweeted Tuesday, apparently referring to “Words With Friends,” a Scrabble-like game played over social networks.
“But oddly, 30 Rock plays in flight on American,” he added, referring to the NBC comedy he stars in alongside Tina Fey.
Baldwin said he was allowed to take a later flight from Los Angeles to New York but vowed never to use the airline again.
“#theresalwaysunited Last flight w American. Where retired Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950's find jobs,” he tweeted.
In a response to the actor's initial complaint, also posted on the micro-blogging website, American Airlines said: “Mr. Baldwin, we are looking into this,” and asked him to send his direct contact information.
An American Airlines spokesman declined to comment on the incident, saying the company would not weigh in on “something that might or might not have happened,” due to customer privacy concerns.
In response to complaints tweeted by Baldwin's fans, American Airlines tweeted: “Our flight attendants were following federal safety procedures on electronic devices when aircraft door is closed.”
Other passengers said Baldwin was removed after an angry confrontation with the flight attendant.
“He was turning off his devices and, I don't know, he just got a little angry,” former boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya, a fellow passenger on the flight, told reporters in New York.
“He was on his phone. He didn't want to get off his phone. Then he snuck into the bathroom, he became a little bit irate, and they had to remove him from the flight,” another passenger said.
Baldwin's spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Norman Kamaru
