If Your Underwear Doesn’t Speak, You Can’t Fly Today

In one of those bizarre “there must be more to it than that” sort of stories, a woman is suing JetBlue for making her prove to them that she was wearing underwear. Apparently she was, but the Captain wouldn’t fly with her and she wound up taking another flight four hours later.

Ms Knowles said she was wearing a baggy blue T-shirt over a pair of short dark denim shorts she had put on for the flight on July 13, last year when she was forced off the plane at LaGuardia Airport.

She was taken to a hangar, where she lifted up her T-shirt to prove she met the dress code.

The supervisor seemed surprise at her shorts and she was allowed to return to the flight, but was then told the pilot refused to fly with her onboard

The especially bizarre claim is that “a JetBlue supervisor put a walkie-talkie between her legs to see what she had on under her baggy T-shirt.” The first time I thought that I wondered, was he hoping that her underwear would speak? (“Breaker One Nine, All Present And Accounted for!”)

Although I suppose the suggestion is that a walkie talkie was used as an instrument to move aside other clothing and inspect?

Surely there’s more going on here?

(HT: uggboy.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. Get ready for the Spirit Airlines ad campaign that is surely going to poke fun at this!

  2. What type of business meeting she was heading to wearing a T shirt and baggy jeans shorts?

  3. ?? Where are we going with this?? In the end, the TSA’s boarding examinations should probably include the “Sniff Test and the “Attire Test,” right? Since TSA is our Air Behavior and Costume Police, TSA alone should determine who flies. Oh Yah!! Go TSA! Tank tops, crotch shorts and flip-flops (and no sniffing) are cool with TSA for coach – we have years of prof. In the conservative and sedate Business Class, slacks and a jacket are gate-passers. Loose. comfortable jeans are OK, be have a good story ready. Your TSA friends will want to know why your ‘attitude’ is so casual. Per TSA, Commercial flying is Very Serious Business! Passengers who are not dressed appropriatly may be subjected to additional screening… Yes, Mam!! I will wear proper duds, just to help you throught your bent biases and yes, just to get on the airplane. You, Ms. screener are an idiot! You and your gate screening process could not find a Serious Threat, if it existed. Yes, the tests and trials prove it! You annoy me and you grope me beyone reason (obviously having some fun), but your procedure find nothing – and never have. Find a better way. The close feel or x-ray do NOT make us any more secure. -C.

  4. “What type of business meeting she was heading to wearing a T shirt and baggy jeans shorts?”

    Not everybody wears the same clothes on a plane that they wear to the business meeting they’re going to… I certainly don’t.

  5. Just a couple of observations on the comments please.

    The shirt was baggy and the shorts were short.

    The posting makes absolutely no mention of the TSA. This seems to be a Jet Blue dress code issue.

    Tom.

  6. I never believe the initial reports on these incidents. In every case it seems that facts contradicting the passengers’ version of the story appear. The media knows this but the one-sided version gets more views, so they go with that.

Comments are closed.