Qantas has backed its cabin crew and asked Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am to retract his tweets calling a flight attendant on his Brisbane-to-Sydney trip "racist".

Key points: will.i.am was met by police at Sydney Airport after a confrontation with a Qantas flight attendant

will.i.am was met by police at Sydney Airport after a confrontation with a Qantas flight attendant The rapper accused the flight attendant of being "overly aggressive" and "beyond rude" on the flight from Brisbane

The rapper accused the flight attendant of being "overly aggressive" and "beyond rude" on the flight from Brisbane Qantas and the Flight Attendants Association have backed the crew member, saying she was just doing her job

The rapper clashed with a flight attendant, who he claims was "overly aggressive" and "beyond rude" to him because he could not hear her through his noise-cancelling headphones.

He was met by police at Sydney Airport on Saturday after the incident.

"I'm sorry to say me and my group have experienced they (sic) worse service due to a overly aggressive flight attendant … I don't want to believe she racist. But she has clearly aimed all her frustrations only at the people of colour," he tweeted.

But the airline has described the incident as a "misunderstanding".

"We fully support our crew and the great work they do ensuring safety of all those on board," the company said in a note to staff on Monday.

will.i.am named the Qantas flight attendant in a tweet, while also identifying a police officer.

It rejected the allegation that the incident had anything to do with race.

"There was a misunderstanding on board, which seems to have been exacerbated by will.i.am wearing noise-cancelling headphones and not being able to hear instructions from crew," a spokesman said in a statement.

"We'll be following up with will.i.am and wish him well for the rest of the tour."

'Attacked for just doing her job'

The Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA) said it was disappointed in will.i.am's reaction and his naming of the flight attendant on social media.

FAAA secretary Teri O'Toole told The Australian newspaper it was an essential part of a cabin crew's job to issue safety directions and ensure those directions were followed.

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"This woman is being attacked for just doing her job. It's completely unjust," Ms O'Toole said.

The Australian Federal Police boarded the aircraft on arrival in Sydney and spoke to crew and passengers, including will.i.am, but no further action was taken.

"The AFP considers this matter finalised," a spokesman said.

In subsequent tweets, the rapper used the hashtag #racistflightattendant, named the woman and shared an image of her and an Australian Federal Police officer.

".@Qantas Your #RacistFlightattendant was beyond rude & took it to the next level by calling the police on me. thank god the other passengers testified that SHE was out of Control the police finally let me go. Imagine if the police were as aggressive as [the flight attendant]," he wrote.

Others on board the flight took to Twitter to corroborate the rapper's account.

will.i.am is in Australia with the Black Eyed Peas as part of the band's 2019-20 world tour and is performing in Homebush on Saturday night.

ABC/AAP