(FOX 2 News)
For those unfamiliar with the Comedy Central show Broad City, the two main characters are a pair of unapologetically potty-mouthed friends with a penchant for using colorful language to describe any and all situations. But in showing his fandom with a T-shirt bearing the word “F***ing” between “Broad” and “City,” a Southwest Airlines passenger was reportedly kicked off his flight after refusing to cover up during an unscheduled stopover.
A college student on a Southwest flight from Dallas to Chicago landed in hot water with airline employees in St. Louis, when his plane made an unplanned stop at Lambert Airport due to bad weather, reports FOX 2 News.
Though his T-shirt reading “Broad F***ing City” had been covered up while he had his jacket on, he took the outer layer off after deplaning to use the restroom. That’s when he says a gate agent noticed his shirt and told him he’d have to take it off.
“It’s only when I got back on the plane when it was gonna take off, ya know, you have this much space, you’re gonna take your jacket off because it’s hot,” he explained. “I took my jacket off, so he sent someone to remove me from the flight.”
Though he claimed to the news station that he wasn’t given a chance to take the shirt off or cover it up, and that he “gladly would’ve done so” before re-boarding the plane, he provided a video that shows otherwise.
In the video, an employee asks him at the door of the aircraft if someone asked him about his shirt, which he affirms. The worker asks if he can change his shirt, to which he says, “Nope.” He then asks if he can put his jacket on and leave it on for the flight, and his answer is inaudible. Turn it inside out? “Nope.”
“Is there anything you can do not to display the shirt because at this point we can’t allow you to go,” the worker says.
At that point, the student brings up freedom of speech and insists it’s not bothering anyone. The worker notes that Southwest’s contract of carriage doesn’t allow for shirts with offensive sayings, and the passenger asks if a poll can be taken instead.
That doesn’t happen, and he was instead asked to leave the plane. He says he was escorted by airport police from the terminal after he confronted the gate agent on the way out. He then reportedly contacted local media.
“There are more than a hundred people on the plane trying to get to Chicago and the most important thing is my shirt?” he says. “How does that work? Where’s the sense of priority?”
Southwest said in a statement that it stood behind the actions of its employees in the incident.
“We rely on our employees and customers to use common sense and good judgment,” a spokesman told FOX 2.
According to Southwest’s policy, it will “may refuse to transport, or remove from the aircraft at any
point, any Passenger in any of the circumstances listed below as may be necessary for the
comfort or safety of such Passenger or other Passengers and crew members,” including: “Persons whose conduct is or has been known to be disorderly, abusive, offensive, threatening, intimidating, violent, or whose clothing is lewd, obscene, or patently offensive.”
The passenger eventually boarded a later flight to his final destination in New York after agreeing to change his shirt.
Man kicked off Southwest flight over language on t-shirt [FOX 2 News]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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