They Boarded Plane, Took Off Sweaters, Got Booted

Women say Spirit Airlines kicked them off flight out of LA for wearing crop tops on hot aircraft
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 9, 2024 5:55 PM CDT
They Boarded Plane, Took Off Sweaters, Got Booted
A Spirit Airlines plane is seen at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport on June 2, 2023, in Manchester, New Hampshire.   (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Two California women say they were booted from a Spirit Airlines flight before it got off the ground in Los Angeles because they were wearing crop tops. Tara Kehidi of Dana Point tells KABC that she and friend Teresa Araujo, a Costa Mesa resident, both had sweaters on when they boarded the plane Friday. But because the plane felt extra warm as they waited for the plane to take off to New Orleans, they shed that outer layer, revealing their midriff-baring shirts. "Just like a little bit of stomach showing," Kehidi says. That's when a male flight attendant approached her and Araujo and told them to "put something on," per Kehidi.

"We're like, 'Oh, can we see a dress code?" she notes. "Like, is there a policy that says we can't wear crop tops on the plane?" Another passenger who was seated behind them, Carla Hager, concurs that the plane was hot, and when she saw what was happening to Kehidi and Araujo, she spoke up. "I said, 'Well, if your body is inappropriate, then so is mine, because I also have a crop top under my sweater,'" she recalls. "And I took my sweater off and I was like, 'So if they're kicking you off the flight, then they're also going to have to kick me and my toddler off of the flight." All three women—and Hager's toddler—were indeed asked to leave the plane, with no offers of a refund.

Araujo says she and Kehidi were "embarrassed" for "being treated like ... criminals ... Everyone in the plane was looking at us." Kehidi and Araujo say they offered to put their sweaters back on so they could stay on the flight, to no avail. In a statement, Spirit says that all passengers who book tickets agree to the airline's "Contract of Carriage," which it notes says a passenger can be kicked off an aircraft sans refund, or not permitted to board in the first place, if they're "barefoot or inadequately clothed," or if they're wearing anything that's "lewd, obscene, or offensive in nature." The Guardian notes that because airline dress codes are often vague, crew members are usually left to enforce them at their own discretion, "leading many female passengers to point out sexist differences in that enforcement." (More Spirit Airlines stories.)

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