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They kicked a woman off a plane for wearing a T-shirt critical of George Bush. This is an outrage.
I ask you to please call Southwest and tell them you feel this is un-American, and better yet, that you won't be flying SWA for a while due to this unacceptable censorship.
They don't accept e mail, please call them:
214-792-4223
Mon - Fri, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm CT
From:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/06/news/fo
Southwest boots woman for shirt
Lorrie Heasley to sue for being asked to leave a flight because of her politically charged T-shirt.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Southwest Airlines kicked a woman off one of its flights over a political message on her T-shirt, the airline confirmed Thursday, and published reports say the passenger will sue.
Lorrie Heasley, of Woodland, Wash., was asked to leave her flight from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., Tuesday for wearing a T-shirt with pictures of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a phrase similar to the popular film title "Meet the Fockers."
A spokesman for Southwest Airlines (up $0.20 to $15.21, Research) told CNN that the airline used the "common sense" approach when they decided to escort Heasley from the plane in Reno, Nevada, during a stopover between Los Angeles and Portland, Ore.
The airline felt that the T-shirt was offensive and that other passengers would be outraged by it, the spokeswoman said, adding that the incident is about "decency."
"I have cousins in Iraq and other relatives going to war," Heasley told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane in midflight over a T-shirt. That's not freedom."
According to the airline spokeswoman, Heasley was asked to leave after she refused to cover up her T-shirt, an account that conflicts with Heasley's version in the Gazette-Journal.
Heasley told the newspaper that she agreed to cover her shirt with a sweatshirt, but it slipped as she slept. After she was ordered to wear her T-shirt inside-out or leave, she and her husband chose to leave, the paper said.
The 32-year-old lumber saleswoman said in the report that no one from Southwest said anything about the shirt while she waited near the gate at Los Angeles International Airport, nor did anyone mention the shirt as she boarded the aircraft.
Southwest Airlines (up $0.20 to $15.21, Research) spokeswoman Marilee McInnis told the Gazette-Journal that the airline's contract with the Federal Aviation Administration contains rules that say the airline will deny boarding to any customer whose conduct is offensive, abusive, disorderly or violent or for clothing that is "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive."
FAA spokesman Donn Walker told the newspaper that no federal rules exist on the subject.
"It's up to the airlines who they want to take and by what rules," he was quoted as saying. "The government just doesn't get into the business of what people wear on an aircraft."
Heasley wants Southwest to reimburse her and her husband for the last leg of their trip and pay for her gasoline, a $68 rental car from Avis and a $70 hotel bill, according to reports
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*Syd G
San Francisco
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October 7 2005, 00:55:17 UTC 6 years ago
October 7 2005, 03:00:19 UTC 6 years ago
With a shirt like that, you pays your money, you takes your chances.
No I DO think the right thing to do would be to at least refund the price of the ticket for the last leg of the journey, or better yet, give her a confirmed ticket for the rest of the flight the next day under the condition that she not wear anything that offensive on another SWA Flight.
Maybe I'm biased, being an SWA kid, but this just stinks, to me, of "Kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar."
October 7 2005, 09:28:24 UTC 6 years ago
Do I think you should be able to wear a T-Shirt like that on a plane? Absolutely.
Do I think SWA has a right to kick you off if they don't like the language, asked you to leave and you were obnoxious or annoying? Absolutely.
Now if she was being reasonable and was just being hassled, that's another thing entirely, but I doubt that's the way this thing played out.
October 7 2005, 14:26:49 UTC 6 years ago
You're right - it's like someone asking you "Please don't smoke next to me" when you are in a place (like a restaurant) where you can't move away from them.
Personally, when I wear my "I fucked your girlfriend t-shirt" -- I expect a reaction. I don't wear the shirt in general public -- I won't wear it walking down Market St, to work, or to the grocery store. The reaction I get from the "It was on fire when I got here" t-shirt is strong enough!
October 7 2005, 21:11:54 UTC 6 years ago
Coming from a part of the world where I've regularly seen T-shirts reading "No more Mr Nice Guy - Down on your knees, bitch", and at the mall, no less, I find SWA's response over-the-top.
Also, if SWA had a policy about this stuff, you'd think they would have mentioned it before or as she boarded the plane. The fact that they didn't implies to me that it was more than just an expletive that prompted their response.
I don't wear clothes with expletives on them, but then I'm a modest fuddydud.
Points to Heasley for not seeking thousands or millions of dollars.
(yet). ;)
October 7 2005, 04:29:55 UTC 6 years ago