While removing a passenger from a fully boarded aircraft often leads to confrontation, delay and bad feelings, the bar for kicking someone off a flight is getting lower than a limbo dancer’s stick. Whereas once it was all about safety, security and intoxication, nowadays, if someone doesn’t like your t-shirt, you might find yourself back in the departure lounge as the flight takes off without you.

What happened at SRQ

On Saturday morning, a passenger was escorted off a Delta Air Lines flight because of the t-shirt he was wearing. According to the New York Post, the passenger was waiting to board his flight when an airline staffer told him that someone had complained about his shirt, and he was directed to change it or be barred from boarding the flight.

Delta Air Lines Airbus A220-100 Landing In Low Light

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

The passenger complied by turning the shirt inside out and boarded the aircraft, which was fully loaded and getting ready for departure from Florida’s Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) when things turned ugly. A Reddit post reports that after boarding, he flipped the shirt back to its original state, and soon after, a Delta employee came on the plane and escorted him off. Have a look:

How does this work?

Keeping in mind that Simple Flying is an aviation site and not a political commentator, the issue is not what is on this shirt but how well passengers are acquainted with the rules around being removed from a flight. It is also about how those critical decisions are made and who is the judge and jury on what is offensive or annoying.

Delta Air Lines Airbus A220-100 (N125DU) landing at San Francisco International Airport.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

The Post said that airlines can remove passengers from its flights when deemed necessary “in Delta’s sole discretion for the passenger’s comfort or safety, for the comfort or safety of other passengers or Delta employees or for the prevention of damage to the property of Delta or its passengers or employees.”

That sounds reasonable, and when an objectionable, drunk or obnoxious passenger is marched off the aircraft in a walk of shame, the other travelers applaud. It is the next part of the conditions that seems to be creeping in more often as a reason to boot someone off a flight that needs some discussion. A traveler can be removed when their:

“conduct, attire, hygiene or odor creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers.”

As someone who is not a fashionista, simply reading that sends a shiver down my spine, but I am buoyed by the news that I can complain about other passengers’ attire, hygiene or odor and have them removed. As for what constitutes annoying the list is endless, but how about the people who remove their shoes and socks and poke their (odorous) feet through the side of my seat or the perennial seat recliners during meal service?

Delta Air Lines cabin shutterstock_1382294846

Photo: Cassiohabib | Shutterstock

While this is slightly tongue-in-cheek, just think about it for a minute and how it could affect you or fellow travelers if airline staff take it too literally. Do we really want the annoyance of one passenger to be grounds for kicking off a legitimate customer, and more to the point, do we want airline staff to be the arbiters of what constitutes that?

Why not stick to the safe operation of the flight as the main criteria rather than saying that not wearing a shirt inside out is “not complying with the directions of airline staff?” If it displays profanity then a quiet word may be a better solution, but Delta and all airlines will need to make it much clearer what is acceptable to wear on their flights when selling tickets.

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