ATLANTA, GA—On Thursday, August 20, Delta Air Lines said that it banned retired U.S. Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill for allegedly failing to wear a mask during a flight.
Robert James O’Neill is a former United States Navy SEAL and special warfare operator. He claims to have killed Osama bin Laden during the raid on his Abbottabad compound on May 1, 2011.
O’Neill tweeted a selfie while on board a Newark-bound Delta flight on Wednesday, August 19. In it, he was not wearing a mask, but other travelers around him were. The selfie was captioned “I’m not a p–y.”
It was deleted and O’Neill later tweeted: “I just got banned from @Delta for posting a picture. Wow.”
“Part of every customer’s commitment prior to traveling on Delta is the requirement to acknowledge our updated travel policies, which includes wearing a mask. Failure to comply with our mask-wearing mandate can result in losing the ability to fly Delta in the future,” said Delta in a statement.
Delta has put around 130 people on its no-fly list for failing to wear masks.
In an interview with Fox Business, O’Neill explained that he was joking in posting the tweet. He added that he was complying with Delta’s policy because his mask was only off when eating.
“I’m not anti-mask. I don’t think you should be ordered to do it but if people are more comfortable, go ahead and wear it. But to me this is a peaceful protest about wearing masks,” said O’Neill.
