A US-based travel blogger got kicked off the plane after taking a photo of his seat on a United Airlines flight to Turkey, NBC News reports.
"I take photos on every single flight I am on," Matthew Klint, the 26-year old travel blogger, told NBC News. "I have a picture of every airline meal I've been served for the last nine years."
But on February 14, when he took a photo of his seat before takeoff, a flight attendant asked him to put his phone away, as taking pictures of the cabin was prohibited. She referenced a policy about in-flight photography published in the airline's Hemispheres magazine.
Klint says he stopped taking photos and put his iPhone away. But felt a need to explain his actions.
So he signaled for the flight attendant to come back to his seat and said: "I want you to understand why I was taking pictures. I hope you didn't think I was a terrorist."
He went on to explain that he was a blogger and told her about his site called "Live and Let's Fly." She seemed unperturbed, but a short while later an airline representative came on board and said the captain was uncomfortable having Klint on the plane and that he needed to get off. After an unproductive conversation with the captain, Klint disembarked and took a later flight.
United Airlines spokesperson Rahsaan Johnson declined to confirm details of the incident to NBC News, but the airline has seen Klint's blog post about it and has "reached out to the customer to fully understand his perspective of what happened onboard," Johnson said.
"For reasons of service and security, our crews may need to restrict photography onboard, particularly when customers are taking photos of other customers or crew members without consent," he said. The policy has been in place since 2010.
