Airline traveling. There are so many factors that come along with making a safe and enjoyable journey. Not just for the passenger, but also for the staff and crew. In a story reported today by Gizmodo, this flight travel is just ridiculous.
Freelance e-sport reporter Amanda Stevens was en route to report at the Chicago League of Legends quarterfinals when Stevens was asked to remove their hat and shirt because it made the pilot “uncomfortable”. It must’ve been something horribly offensive, right?
Nope.
It was a baseball cap with Marvel’s Black Panther printed on it and an ASAP ROCKY design shirt with the American flag presented upside down.
The end result for Stevens after refusing to remove these articles of clothing? Being kicked off the flight. Perhaps the pilot was just a DC fan.
Stevens went to Twitter to tell his story through a series of tweets and was eventually contacted by the official United Airlines twitter account.
Dear @united this shirt shouldn't make your pilot uncomfortable enough to warrant having me spoken to and told to take it off pic.twitter.com/AHNU3pZxLC
— You're going to carry that weight (@AmandaTNStevens) October 12, 2016
He didn't seem that bothered to give me a smug look when he walked past me to the bathroom @united
— You're going to carry that weight (@AmandaTNStevens) October 12, 2016
And now I am being told I can't wear my hat @united this is unreal and fucking racist pic.twitter.com/338GyYDa97
— You're going to carry that weight (@AmandaTNStevens) October 12, 2016
Amanda, could you please DM your confirmation number and MileagePlus information? We'd like to follow-up on this. ^KV
— United Airlines (@united) October 12, 2016
Granted the shirt was pulled from stores years ago, but come on. It’s a shirt. You would think people would have a little bit more of a thick skin.
io9 later revealed that Amanda was indeed contacted by United Airlines:
Reached by phone, Stevens told io9 that a United representative first raised concerns when she was preparing to board flight 5183 from Albany to Chicago. Stevens told me that she’s flown in this outfit before but turned the shirt inside out. She was then told that the hat was a concern as well. She was allowed to board the plane but had a tense exchange with an attendant who asked her to place her bag under the seat in front of her. “I didn’t know if I was going to be staying on the plane or not and I said that,” she told me. “I was grumbling because I was frustrated.”
Stevens then told me that the exchange with the flight attendant was given as the reason that she was ejected from the flight. Stevens says that she received a direct message from the official United account on Twitter and returned to the service counter at the gate under the assumption that she’d be getting booked on the next flight. However, the United employees that Stevens was dealing with retreated to an employees-only area and Stevens told me that she’s been waiting with no acknowledgment for more than two hours. We’ve reached out to United for comment and will update if they reply.
If you’d like to let United know how you feel, be sure to tweet them here.
Source: io9