Thrown off plane for sexy outfit

It seems you can get thrown off an airplane for anything. Kyla Ebbert found that out when a Southwest Airlines employee told her she was too bare for the air. The picture showed is what she wore on the TODAY show. It consisted of a snug-fitting white top with a scoop neck that stopped just short of showing cleavage.

Over the shirt was a green sweater that buttoned underneath her bosom. It was finished with high-heeled sandals and a white denim mini-skirt with a fashionably frayed hem.

So basically a Southwest employee identified only as "Keith," who approached Ebbert after she had taken her seat on the plane and was listening to the flight attendants go through their pre-departure routine.

He asked her to step off of the plane and when they were in the jetway, he told her that her clothing was inappropriate and asked her to change her clothes.

Apparently, he said "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to take a later flight. You're dressed inappropriately. This is a family airline. You're dressed too provocative to fly on this flight."

A compromise was finally reached when Ebbert promised to pull up her top, which wasn't showing cleavage to begin with, and pull down her tiny skirt.

The San Diego Union-Tribune called Southwest Airlines and asked if the airline had a dress code. Could, for example, a woman board wearing a bikini top?

The newspaper on Tuesday quoted the Southwest agent it spoke with as saying, “We don't have a problem with it if she's covered up in all the right spots. We don't have a dress code.”

Statement from Southwest Airlines:
"Southwest Airlines was responding to a concern about Ms. Ebbert's revealing attire on the flight that day. As a compromise, we asked her to adjust her clothing to be less revealing, she complied, and she traveled as scheduled. When a concern is brought to our Employees' attention, we address that situation directly with the Customer(s) involved in a discreet and professional manner. Fortunately, as an airline that carries approximately 96 million Customers a year, these situations are extremely rare."

Ok, that's fine, but it seemed a double standard when Ebbert wore the same outfit on a return flight, and one of the female flight attendants complimented her attire.

I find it kind of ridiculous about Southwest's policy saying it could remove any passenger “whose clothing is lewd, obscene or patently offensive” to ensure the comfort of children and “adults with heightened sensitivities.” That could depend on the flight attendant in charge or the pilot or whatever airline staff is there.

We obviously know what attire could be quite offensive, but how can you handle political, religious, humor, or whatever clothing? How can you define sexy vs provocative? Do we really need the fashion police?

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Update 9/18/07:
It turns out Southwest sent out an apology to Kyla Ebbert, but not quite sincerely. Southwest Airlines' CEO, Gary C. Kelly, issued an apology to Dr. Phil for him to read to Kyla, her attorney, and her mother. Mr. Kelly, in his attempt to be humorous, poked fun at Kyla and not Southwest Airlines. After this so-called apology, the airline announced its miniskirt fares. The two airline tickets given to her were not accepted.

She did get a free ticket on Virgin America.

Mr. Kelly also claims that they did apologize to Kyla back in August, but there's nothing to prove that. Also, the day before Kelly's indirect apology on the Dr. Phil show, the president of Southwest Airlines, Coleen Barrett, was speaking at Texas Christian University where she defended the airline's actions and said they won't likely apologize to Kyla. She concluded by saying that Southwest Airlines continues its culture of putting its employees first and trusting them to make appropriate decisions as with the scenario involving Kyla.

"Apparently Ms. Barrett does not believe the customer comes first," says Martin Reed, Kyla's attorney.

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