US Airline JetBlue Reportedly Slaps Rapper Lil Pump With Lifetime Ban Over Refusing to Wear Mask

American rapper Gazzy Garcia, whose marketing brands him as Lil Pump, has been slapped with a lifetime ban against flying with US airline JetBlue over refusing to wear a protective facemask during a flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Los Angeles, California, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, TMZ reported.

A representative of the airline told the outlet that Garcia “became verbally abusive with crew members, and also took off his face covering mid-flight”. The company said that the 20-year-old rapper and music producer refrained to put back his mask “even when asked”.

According to TMZ, the flight crew was prompted to call police at LAX to have the cops “on standby” to deal the rapper upon landing. However, the Miami-based artist was reportedly not arrested or involved in an interaction with police.

Citing obtained correspondence from the flight deck detailing what happened during the flight, the newspaper reported that the rapper was sneezing and coughing into a blanket without a mask on, “perhaps on purpose”, for that he “had to be dealt with firmly”. He was said to have been finally obliged to put on his mask.

Garcia reportedly took to social media to complain about the JetBlue ban.

In a now-deleted story on Instagram, the musician was heard saying “f**k JetBlue” and that he will never wear a mask in 2021. He suggested that “coronavirus is fake”.