American woman claims flight officer scolded her for not wearing a bra
Los Angeles:
A woman says she was threatened with being kicked off a US Delta Air Lines flight for not wearing a bra and demanded a meeting with the company’s top boss on Thursday over what she says is a discriminatory policy.
Lisa Archbold said she was wearing baggy jeans and a loose white T-shirt – with no bra – and claimed she was temporarily removed from the flight by a female gate agent who demanded she cover herself Even though her breasts were not visible.
“It felt like a scarlet letter was being attached to me,” Archbold, 38, told reporters in Los Angeles about the January incident.
“I thought it was a farce intended to punish me for not being as woman as he thought I should be because he scolded me outside the plane.”
Archbold, a DJ who was flying from conservative Utah’s Salt Lake City to famously liberal San Francisco, claims a Delta agent said her attire was “revealing” and “offensive” and that the airline’s policy is against passengers wearing such a dress. She was not allowed to travel wearing clothes from the same class. ,
But, the agent said, if she wore a jacket over her T-shirt, she would be allowed to continue her journey.
Attorney Gloria Allred said she wrote to Delta on Archbold’s behalf, demanding a meeting with the company’s president to discuss the discriminatory policy.
“Male passengers are not required to cover their T-shirts with shirts or jackets,” he said.
“They don’t have to wear a bra to get on or stay on a plane and women don’t have to wear a bra either.
“Last I checked, the Taliban are not in charge of the Delta.”
Allred said US federal regulations allow airlines to remove passengers who pose a safety risk to the aircraft or its passengers, but that was apparently not the case with Archbold.
He said, “Neither her breasts nor the breasts of any other woman have ever tried to take over the plane.”
“Breasts are not weapons of war, and it is not a crime for a woman or girl to have them.”
Allred said there are no plans for a lawsuit at this time and that he and Archbold only wanted to set up a meeting with Delta’s president to get assurances that their policies would be updated.
In response to an AFP inquiry, a company spokesperson said: “Earlier this year, Delta representatives contacted this customer with an apology.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)