Former United States Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill at The Majestic Downtown in Los Angeles, California, on March 14, 2015. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images for NFMFS)
The former Navy SEAL who claims to have shot dead Osama bin Laden has been banned from flying with Delta Air Lines after refusing to wear a face mask.
Robert O’Neill, 44, posted a picture of himself on Twitter on board a flight on Wednesday without a mask on, captioning the image, “I’m not a [expletive].”
The tweet was accompanied by a slew of other complaints over “dumb [expletive]” masks and the pandemic “sent to you by China,” which were later deleted, along with his initial post, by his wife.
In a set of follow-up Twitter posts, O’Neill insisted the tweet was “a joke,” adding, “This was not a dig at the Marine behind me. I love marines.”
He also wrote on Twitter, “Thank God it wasn’t Delta flying us in when we killed bin Laden... we weren’t wearing masks.”
However, on Thursday, the ex-Navy SEAL, who is now a Fox News contributor confirmed on Twitter that he had been banned from flying with the airline.
“I just got banned from @Delta for posting a picture. Wow,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for Delta confirmed that O’Neill is no longer welcome aboard in a statement to the New York Post.
“Part of every customer’s commitment prior to traveling on Delta is the requirement to acknowledge our updated travel policies, which includes wearing a mask,” the airline said.
“Failure to comply with our mask-wearing mandate can result in losing the ability to fly Delta in the future.”
A Delta Airlines airplane is seen at gate at Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Va. on April 11, 2020. (Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends wearing a mask when flying and maintaining social distancing of 6 feet from anyone who is not from your household. It also recommends washing hands often or using hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol and avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
O’Neill first joined the Navy in 1995 and participated in the rescue of the last survivor of a four-man team who was attacked in 2005 while tracking a Taliban leader in Afghanistan. The rescue was later made into a movie, “Lone Survivor.”
He also participated in the 2009 rescue of the captain on a merchant ship overrun by Somali pirates—the subject of the Tom Hanks film “Captain Phillips.”
A woman takes a picture of an Osama bin Laden wanted poster at an exhibition at the National 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City on Nov. 7, 2019. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2014, he told The Washington Post that he was the U.S. special operator who fired the shot that killed al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden during a 2011 raid.
However, his claims have been disputed by another Navy SEAL involved in the raid, Matt Bissonnette, who claimed in his 2012 book that he killed bin Laden.
O’Neill’s Twitter bio reads: “I shot a famous guy. Thrice.”
According to previous Pentagon reports, it is unclear whose shots killed bin Laden.
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