Jeremy Clarkson accuses airport check-in clerk of ‘hate crime’
Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has accused an Argentinian check-in clerk who prevented him from boarding a British Airways’ flight of committing a ‘hate crime’.
Clarkson and his co-hosts, James May and Richard Hammond, told the Sun newspaper the airport employee wouldn’t let them on the flight from Stuttgart to Heathrow.
The trio were returning to the UK after filming their new programme, The Grand Tour.
Clarkson accused the check-in clerk of telling his colleagues that the three were too drunk to fly, and the Sun quoted him saying:
"He’s a stupid, bitter and twisted little man. [He] made us miss our plane and he will pay for it. The police said it was a hate crime and he would be arrested. Yes, even the Germans were 100 per cent on our side — for once."
However, a spokesman for Reutlingen police department told the Sun that nobody had been arrested or charged and no official complaint had been made.
He said the television crew had failed to hear an announcement in the departure lounge saying that the BA flight, which was meant to be delayed, was going to be on time, so when they eventually arrived at the gate they were too late to board.
He said an argument began with the airport employee, and Clarkson was given a card by police in case he wanted to make a complaint, but he hadn’t done so by yesterday afternoon.
The flair up at Stuttgart follows a row between Clarkson and Argentinians two years ago during the filming of BBC’s Top Gear in the country, when he was spotted driving a Porsche with the number plate H982 FKL. Locals assumed it was a deliberate provocation about the Falklands War in 1982 and Clarkson fled the country.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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