A man wearing a Trump t-shirt has been kicked off a Delta Air Lines flight, sparking controversy online over the carrier’s dress code for passengers.
The incident took place on Saturday morning at the at Sarasota-Bradenton Airport in Florida, USA. The man was wearing a black t-shirt, depicting Donald Trump wearing a pair of glasses with US flag lenses and flipping off with both of his hands. The picture was accompanied by a “Hawk Tuah, Spit on that thang” message.
“Crazy day in Sarasota airport, I was sitting next to a young man before boarding that had on a Trump shirt with middle fingers and a red coat came over and told him some lady complained and he had to change his shirt or he could not get on the plane. He turned his shirt inside out, and we all boarded. Next thing I know, right before takeoff, a Delta employee comes on the plane and escorts him off the flight, he had flipped his shirt back to the decal side”, Reddit user SKBeachGirl wrote in a post with a video of the man being escorted off the plane.
Hawk Tuah is a recent popular meme that refers to spitting on a penis during sex. It emerged from a street interview when a girl was asked “What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” and she replied with the now famous phrase. Besides the fact that, in a podcast interview about celebrities she would hawk tuah on, the girl, who’s name is Haliey Welch, said she wouldn’t do that to Donald Trump, there seems to be no connection between the two.
Fashion choices aside, the news has sparked a lot of debate online over when or why passengers are removed from flights. “IDK but I’ve seen way worse….girl half naked boarded and left alone”, SKBeachGirl wrote in the post.
“Whereas once [removing a passenger from a flight] was all about safety, security and intoxication, nowadays, if someone doesn’t like your t-shirt, you might find yourself back in the departure lounge as the flight takes off without you”, Simple Flying writes.
The passenger did not appear to cause any nuisance besides his choice of clothes, so the aviation publication questions to what extent can clothes be considered reasonable reasons to be kicked off a flight if the passenger is not a threat to the aircraft or other passengers.
It is not the first time this year Delta sparks this kind of debate. In March, a woman was removed from a flight for not wearing a bra, although she was wearing a fully covering t-shirt. After that, the airline updated its “passenger’s conduct or condition” section in its rule book.
“Delta may refuse to transport any passenger, or may remove any passenger from its aircraft, when refusal to transport or removal of the passenger is reasonably necessary in Delta’s sole discretion for the passenger’s comfort or safety, for the comfort or safety of other passengers or Delta employees, or for the prevention of damage to the property of Delta or its passengers or employees”, the document reads.
The explanation is followed by a list of examples, which include being “disorderly, abusive or violent, (…) intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, (…) barefoot” and “seriously ill”, as well as having a “behaviour that may be hazardous or creates a risk of harm to himself/herself,
the crew, or other passengers”. The last item on the list is “When the passenger’s conduct, attire, hygiene or odour creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers.”
While it might be understandable why someone with questionable hygiene would not be allowed on a plane, the question of attire remains controversial. “Do we really want the annoyance of one passenger to be grounds for kicking off a legitimate customer, and more to the point, do we want airline staff to be the arbiters of what constitutes that?” Simple Flying asks adding that, if airlines want to stick to removing passengers from planes for their clothes, they “will need to make it much clearer what is acceptable to wear on their flights when selling tickets.”
