James Corden was spotted confronting a British Airways employee over a turbulent flight from Portugal to the U.K. on Sunday, June 2, RadarOnline.com has learned.
While the talk show host has been slammed in the past for his diva behavior, fellow passengers revealed Corden was actually a huge help in calming tensions over the turbulent flight — and stuck up for them during an emergency landing.
While en route to London, the flight was forced to make an emergency stop in Lisbon due to a technical fault. According to the Daily Mail, the plane struggled to gain altitude after take off and circled the skies for about 45 minutes before eventually landing.
One passenger, identified as Vanessa, said she was on the flight with Corden. She described the turbulent ordeal to Metro.
"It was something along the lines of, “Gather your possessions as best you can, take off your shoes, and when you’re told to by the airplane staff, please adopt the brace position and when we land if you’re able, please find your nearest emergency exit and vacate the plane," Vanessa recalled.
"Basically, what had happened was the flaps on the airplane wing which are supposed to go down when you are in the air won’t go down, which meant that they wouldn’t be able to raise them on landing."
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After passengers were told they no longer had to assume the brace position for emergency landing, they proceeded to wait on the Lisbon tarmac for three hours before being taken out of service.
Vanessa said Corden helped ease fellow passengers' tensions by entertaining them while they awaited.
"He walked up and down the aisles talking to people, and let everybody take a selfie with him," the passenger said of the talk show host.
While Corden helped distract fellow passengers with selfies and jesting, he apparently became upset when they were finally able to deplane — and were then left without answers in the wrong waiting area.
"So then BA finally let us off the plane, we’re in the terminal and there was not a member of BA staff to be found. And they put us in immigration queues. And there was just no one there telling us what was going on," Vanessa said.
"James was a club flyer and he stood there, and was like 'What about all these people who’ve got all these kids with them?' like saying that’s not acceptable. It’s not right."
A photo of Corden captured him having a moment with British Airways employee. While Corden appeared expressive in the photo, his fellow passenger explained he was actually thanking a member of the flight crew.
"The people he’s speaking to in that picture are the flight staff on our plane. I watched him fist bump the pilot as he got off the plane, he said, 'Thank you very much,'" Vanessa said.
While Corden was applauded for his actions on Sunday's flight, he's been burned in the past over bad behavior — including being briefly banned from New York City hotspot Balthazar.
After Corden was accused of being "abusive" toward Balthazar staff, dozens of individuals came forward with personal anecdotes of the entertainer being rude on and off the set of his talk show.