An “unsavoury passenger” was removed from a Kulula flight on Friday evening after allegedly calling the captain the K-word.

Nadine Watkins tweeted on‏ Friday evening at 10:56pm: “Turning back to O.R Tambo after an unsavoury passenger called the captain the K-word. Our flight might be 10 minutes late‚ but as South Africans we can’t allow this type of behaviour to continue.”

Watkins said in a follow-up tweet a woman was talking to her boyfriend on the phone when the man sitting next to her heard the racial slur.

“He alerted the flight attendant before lift-off and they got the security to remove her.”

Kulula spokesperson William Smook confirmed that an incident had happened on Friday night on flight MN621 from Johannesburg to Durban.

“There was an incident of some sort and it is being investigated.”

Smook said on Sunday there were several accounts of what had happened.

“A lot of the people that were on board as crew on that flight are working now and flying.”

He added: “Kulula doesn’t tolerate any conduct that makes their staff feel uncomfortable. It’s just not the kind of world that we want to live in.”