COMMENTARY | Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong is in the headlines this Labor Day weekend for an incident that took place on Southwest Airlines. Armstrong was boarding a flight that was headed from Oakland to Burbank, Calif., when he was kicked off the plane for wearing baggy pants. Sound familiar?
At the start of summer, a New Mexico University student was kicked off a US Airways flight and even arrested. The incident sparked a lot of controversy as many thought the man was a target for racial profiling. The airline apologized to Deshon Marman and he has responded with a lawsuit against them.
The Southwest Airlines flight attendant asked Armstrong to pull up his pants just before take off, and Armstrong asked if she didn’t have “better things to do than worry about that?” He went on to add that he was just trying to get his seat.
Southwest Airlines has apologized to Armstrong and he was allowed to board the next flight. I’m confused as to why a flight attendant would have a passenger removed if there was not a legitimate cause. The airline would not have issued an apologetic statement if there was good cause for his ejection from the plane.
Did the crew think that by targeting a white person for his attire would somehow put the scales back into balance after the incident with the black male on US Airways? I doubt it, but It’s hard to know what the flight attendant was really thinking, and the actions of the airline don’t bid well for good customer service.
It’s difficult enough to fly these days, with the extreme probing of TSA and trying to figure out what you can and can not bring on the flight. Now we have to be concerned with what may or not be deemed appropriate attire?
In my opinion, if what you are wearing will not get you arrested on the street, you should be left alone on an airplane. It’s not a country club, and if your private parts are not exposed, what is the big deal?
Come on, Southwest. You’re the airline who experienced a scandal just a little over two months ago when one of your pilots went on a rant and obscenely bashed gay people, women, and the overweight that was broadcast all over the airwaves. You didn’t fire that pilot, but you eject a passenger for wearing loose pants?