James Corden was the voice of calm and reason for stressed passengers during a chaotic British Airways flight from Portugal, according to one fellow flyer who has commended the star.
New photos show the former Late Late Show host looking visibly upset as he speaks to airport staff, gesturing expressively.
But, according to a passenger on the nightmare flight with the actor, any frustration Corden may have felt was more than justified.
Vanessa, who was travelling from Faro, Portugal to London Heathrow with her husband and mother on the same flight as Corden, spoke to Metro.co.uk about the nightmarish travel day.
She explained that after the plane took off from Faro, they circled for about 45 minutes, never reaching altitude, before an automated announcement was heard declaring an emergency landing.
‘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 brake position and when we land if you’re able, please find your nearest emergency exit and vacate the plane,”‘ Vanessa said of the harrowing experience.
‘Soon, however, the staff on the plane assured the passengers that they would no longer have to assume the brake position. ‘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,’ she explained.
This meant that the plane had to land in Lisbon, where the passengers were held on the tarmac for three hours before the aircraft was deemed unsafe for flight.
Despite the gruelling wait and scary ordeal, Vanessa said Corden was a bright spot in the experience.
‘He walked up and down the aisles talking to people, and let everybody take a selfie with him,’ she recalled.
‘I made a joke and went, “Oh if we’re all going to die. You could tell us how does the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special end?” and he went “Do you really want to know?” and I went “Yeah.” He went, “I can’t tell you.” Then he said, “but do you want to know what happened on the fishing trip?” and I was like “Yes! I do!” and he was like, “I can’t tell you that either,”‘ she said of the lighthearted exchange.
Vanessa continued: ‘He was just really nice, he would have been well within his rights to sit and sulk in his seat like the rest of us would be doing but he didn’t.’
Later, when the passengers were finally allowed to disembark from the aircraft, the photos of Corden appearing to confront airport staff were taken.
Vanessa explained: ‘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.’
She said that any frustration Corden may have been showing was certainly shared by his fellow passengers. ‘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,”‘ she said.
Vanessa said that the photos depict Corden talking to the flight staff about how the passengers were in the wrong queues, ‘and the staff then got us moved into the right immigration queues.’
She went on to explain that when the staff said that only club flyers or gold flyers would get free hotel rooms for the night, Corden rushed to the defense of his fellow passengers, despite being a club flyer: ‘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.’
The next day, when the exhausted passengers returned to the airport for their rescheduled flight, Vanessa claims Corden was once again a ‘lovely guy.’
She said: ‘We all turned up the next day. We were told to turn up at 9:30 for a flight which actually was again delayed by over two hours and James Corden stood in the same queue as everybody else, doing the same things as everybody else did.’
She continued: ‘I saw him let women and children in front of him. He was a really nice guy both times.’
It seems Corden may have learned from his past mistakes, as the photos come in the wake of heaps of criticism about the Gavin and Stacey star’s people skills.
Ricky Gervais has spoken about his difficult personality,Mel B hailed him as the ‘biggest d***head celebrity’, and one director even described him as ‘obnoxious.’
In fact, Corden has been called rude by a plethora of celebrities, including Pierce Brosnan, and has been embroiled in feuds with countless others.
Corden was even banned from a New York restaurantlast yearfor allegedly being ‘nasty’ to waiting staff.
The actor and presenter reportedly apologised to the owner after news of his behaviour went viral andhas since been unbanned, but it seems he hasn’t learned much from that controversy.
Corden himself has spoken out about his damaged reputation, telling the New York Times: ‘I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level. So why would I ever cancel this? I was there.
‘I get it. I feel so Zen about the whole thing. Because I think it’s so silly. I just think it’s beneath all of us. It’s beneath you. It’s certainly beneath your publication.’
This latest incident comes in the wake of news that theiconic sitcom Gavin and Stacey will be returning for a 2024 Christmas special.
Because of Corden’s controversial reputation, some fans are not pleased with news of the sitcom’s revival, declaring ‘the world does not need more James Corden’ and otherwise disparaging the actor.
But if the experience of the passengers on Corden’s disastrous Portugal flight are anything to go on, it seems that the iconic presenter may be working to repair his public persona in time for Christmas.
Metro has reached out to British Airways for comment.
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