Wale performs at the 2008 Virgin Mobile FreeFest. (Photo by Shamigo)

Wale performs at the 2008 Virgin Mobile FreeFest. (Photo by Shamigo)

The D.C.-bred rapper Wale ran off a string of tweets the other night describing that most frustrating of travel woes: fighting with an airline over alleged on-board phone usage.

As he recounted it on Tuesday evening, Wale was tossed from an American Airlines flight from Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina to New York after the plane’s crew scolded him for having his phone on.


In subsequent tweets, Wale said the pilot got involved in the spat, and that airport police eventually were called to the plane. But as the Post’s Reliable Source blog reports, there is little to suggest that law enforcement played any role:

Though Wale implied in a tweet that law enforcement got involved — “The pilot and I were havin a civil [conversation] until the police showed up. THAT’S when he started yellin and gettin aggressive” — a spokeswoman for the Raleigh-Durham International Airport said Wednesday she did not have an arrest report and therefore no more immediate information.

And it’s pretty clear that Wale did not end up detained, since subsequent texts suggest he was busy making alternate plans: “Where the party at in Raleigh tonight?”

Wale also retweeted a few messages of indignant support from his fans, including some who felt the rapper’s recent position at the head of Billboard’s Top 100 album list entitled him to not be bound to the same rules of commercial travel that apply to other passengers.


But whatever happened after Wale’s Alec Baldwin-lite episode, he eventually made it to New York on Wednesday and last night, boarded a flight to Oslo, where he is scheduled to perform tonight.

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