‘I thought it was a joke’: Ex-Navy Seal responds to Delta Airlines ban over maskless selfie

Veteran credited with shot that killed Osama bin Laden

The former Navy Seal credited with killing Osama bin Laden who was banned from Delta Air Lines after posting a selfie of him not wearing a mask on one of their planes has said the photo was a “joke”.

Robert O’Neill, 44, a former US Navy SEAL Team Six member, discussed the controversy on the Chris Salcedo Show on Wednesday.

Mr O’Neil said he was “peacefully protesting” the “hypocrisy” of the mask policy surrounding mealtimes on the flight and that the post was a “joke”.

“I was thinking, if I can’t wear it while I’m drinking and eating, what if I’m drinking and eating the entire flight?” he said. “So I just snapped a quick selfie.”

He added: “I was just pointing out that ... you need to wear a mask to protect us all unless you’re having something to eat, and it was snack time on Delta Airlines.”

“I thought it was, you know, kind of a joke.”

The veteran had tweeted an image of himself on a flight where he was seen smiling in his seat without a mask, which has since been deleted. “I’m not a p***y,” he wrote in the caption.

The image sparked a backlash and was shared widely online spurring Delta Air Lines to ban him from future flights.

“I just got banned from @Delta for posting a picture. Wow,” Mr O’Neill wrote on Twitter, announcing the ban.

A spokesperson for Delta Air Lines previously confirmed to The Independent that Mr O’Neill has been banned from the airline.

"It's not like I blew the rules off,” Mr O’Neil said in the interview. “It got way way out of hand."

Some Twitter users assumed that the photo was a dig at a man in the background of the photo, who was wearing a USMC (United States Marine Corps) hat while wearing a mask.

Mr O’Neil restated that this was not the case. “It was not a dig at the Marine Corps. I love the Marine Corps,” he said.

The Centres for Disease Control affirms that “cloth face coverings are a critical tool in the fight against Covid-19 that could reduce the spread of the disease, particularly when used universally within communities.”