A woman was reportedly asked to disembark a Delta Air Lines flight earlier this week after she claimed a flight attendant told her the T-shirt she was wearing was “threatening.”
According to local San Francisco outlets SFGATE and NBC Bay Area, US Marine Corps veteran Catherine Banks was boarding a flight at San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday, October 16, when a flight attendant approached her and asked her to get off the plane.
“The male flight attendant was saying: Ma’am, ma’am. I looked around, like, ‘Who was he talking to?’ And it was me, he said, ‘You have to get off the plane,’ and I said, ‘What did I do?’ Banks told NBC Bay Area.
After getting off the plane, Banks said a flight attendant told her her T-shirt – which read “Don’t Surrender to the War Inside. End Veteran Suicide” – was “threatening”.
“I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” she recalled to the outlet. “I’m a veteran of the marines. I’m going to see my Marine sister. I was in the Marines for 22 years and worked for the Air Force for 15 years. I’ll visit her.” He said, ‘I don’t care about your service, and I don’t care about her service. The only way to get back on the plane is to get off it right now.’ ”
San Francisco International Airport.
Getty
Banks told NBC Bay Area that she had to turn her face away from the flight attendant while changing into a different top because she wasn’t wearing a bra.
The flight attendants, Banks claims, also told her to sit in the back of the plane, even though she said she paid for a seat with extra legroom. The flight was delayed and she missed her connecting flight later in the day, she added.
Banks’ shirt was made by the Til Valhalla Project, which helps treat the mental health of America’s veterans, restore veterans homes and more.
“I feel like they just took my soul. I’m not a bad person, and that shirt, I should be allowed to support myself and the veterans,” Banks told NBC Bay Area.
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T-shirts sold by the Til Valhalla project.
To Project Valhalla
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According to Delta’s contract of carriage for US flights, the airline has sole discretion to decide whether to remove passengers from a flight “for the comfort or safety of passengers, for the comfort or safety of other passengers or Delta employees, or to prevent damage to Delta property or its passengers or employee.”
Certain conditions that allow flight attendants to remove passengers from an aircraft include “disorderly, offensive or violent” behavior or “[when] the passenger’s behavior, dress, hygiene or smell create an unreasonable risk of offending or disturbing other passengers.”
A Delta spokesperson told PEOPLE in a statement: “The matter with the customer has been resolved. We appreciate her patience as we continue to work to understand what happened during this event. Most importantly, we are grateful for her service to our country.”
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Line by dialing 988, texting “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Line at 741741 or going to 988lifeline.org.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education