Country singer John Rich was reportedly booted from a Southwest Airlines flight over the weekend for being too drunk. From Billie Joe Armstrong to Kevin Smith, see others who had their Southwest itineraries cut short.
John Rich, country singer of the band Big & Rich, clearly lived up to his band’s name on a recent trip to Las Vegas. When the singer boarded a Southwest plane departing Sin City at 10:50 a.m. on Sunday, several crew members determined he was too drunk to fly. According to TMZ, Rich got into a “verbal argument” with other passengers before he even boarded the plane—and continued the fight once he was inside the main cabin. Crew members then approached Rich and asked him to get off the plane—and he complied. A Southwest rep told TMZ that a customer was indeed kicked off the fligh—but refused to identify him. “The customer was rebooked on a later Southwest flight out of Las Vegas,” the company said in a statement. “But chose to make alternative travel arrangements. We have processed a refund for the customer and his travel companion.”
Michael Loccisano
L-Word actress Leisha Hailey set the Internet atwitter after announcing she had been kicked off a flight for kissing her girlfriend. She tweeted, “So we’ve joined the ranks alongside @BJAofficial and @ThatKevinSmith for being kicked off an @SouthwestAir flight, this time for being gay.” She sent a series of angry tweets, like this one: “This is an outrage. I demand a public apology by @SouthwestAir and a refund. Hate is not a family value. I will never fly this airline. We were escorted off the plane for getting upset about the issue. @SouthwestAir endorses homophobic employees. No one made her accountable.” Southwest later issued a statement, saying that the crew “approached the passengers based solely on behavior and not gender” because of “several passenger complaints characterizing the behavior as excessive.” The statement also said, “The conversation escalated to a level that was better resolved on the ground, as opposed to in flight.”
Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wears some strange attire sometimes, but he probably did not realize it could get him booted off a plane. A journalist on the flight described the scene: “A flight attendant approaches him and says, ‘Pull your pants up.’ He says, ‘Don’t you have better things to do than worry about that?’ and then the flight attendant says again, ‘Pull your pants up or you’re getting off the plane.’” Armstrong later tweeted, “Just got booted off a Southwest flight because my pants sagged too low! What the f-? No joke!”
Kevin Smith was famously removed from a Southwest flight for being too big to fit into his seat. At the time, Southwest offered its apologies in a statement, but said, "If a customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seat, a customer seated adjacent would be very uncomfortable and a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a cramped, restricted seating arrangement." Smith disagreed, tweeting, "I broke no regulation, offered no 'safety risk' (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?)" This wasn’t the last time Southwest removed passengers because of their weight. In 2011, a mother and daughter were told they were too fat to fly without purchasing additional tickets. In another instance, a skinny standby passenger was asked to leave a flight, in order to make room for an obese 14-year-old.
Sisters Ricci Wheatley and Robin Opperman were rushing home from Burbank to Dallas, after learning that their father was dying. As soon as she boarded her flight, Wheatley started crying and asked for a glass of wine, saying, “I’m a nervous flier.” The flight attendant refused. Later in the flight, Wheatley overheard the same attendant mocking her request, to which she replied, “Excuse me, you don’t know anything about me or my situation, so please don’t judge me.” Soon after this, the flight was diverted to Oakland, where the sisters were removed. They were rebooked on a flight the following morning, and made it to their father before he died.
Kyla Ebbert, a Hooters waitress, almost got kicked off her flight for wearing clothes that were too revealing—although it is not at all clear what her outfit revealed. She was wearing a top that covered her cleavage, and a sweater over it, and a white denim miniskirt. But a flight attended pulled the 23-year-old off the plane, and told her she was dressed “inappropriately.” She eventually was allowed back on the flight, and she covered herself with a blanket. Another woman complained of similar treatment: on a Southwest flight, when she claimed the staff would let her fly only if she wrapped a blanket around herself to cover her halter-style dress. Ebbert’s story at least had a happy ending. After hearing her story, Sir Richard Branson invited her to celebrate with him on Virgin America’s first flight to Las Vegas.
San Jose University graduate student Irum Abbasi was on a flight back from San Diego when she was kicked off a plane. The Muslim student, who was wearing a headscarf on board, quickly finished a cellphone conversation with a Verizon representative, by saying, “I have to go.” A passing flight attendant thought that she was saying, “It’s a go,” and determined that Abbasi was suspicious and that the attendant did not feel comfortable flying with her, so she was removed from the airplane by TSA agents. Abassi said, “I tried to explain that I have work to do, and they still said, 'We'll put you on the next flight.' They did not question me. I even handed over my purse and cell phone for inspection and they didn’t even touch it.” She was allowed to fly to San Jose on a different flight later that night.
Pamela Root was forced off a flight from Amarillo to San Jose because her toddler was being too loud. While the plane waited in line for takeoff, the boy repeatedly screamed, “I want Daddy!” and “Go! Plane! Go!” The pilot announced that the plane was returning to the gate because of a “passenger issue” and flight attendants told Root she and her son would have to get off. Southwest eventually apologized and gave Root a $300 travel voucher, but said the decision to remove her and her son was made out of safety concerns, as the child’s screams apparently had drowned out the safety announcements. A spokesman said, "We have to abide by FAA policies and be able to deliver safety announcements. Our flight attendants gave the child juice and coloring books, and we're sorry she was inconvenienced."
In 2005, Lorrie Heasley was kicked off her flight from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., for wearing a T-shirt with pictures of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a caption that said, “Meet the F**kers.” Heasley says she agreed to cover up the shirt with a sweatshirt, which slipped off as she slept, and she then left the plane after refusing to turn the shirt inside out. But an airline spokesman said she simply refused to cover her shirt, and that is why she was asked to leave. The spokeswoman said the incident was about “decency.” She added that Southwest’s contract with the FAA says the airline will deny boarding to anyone whose conduct is offensive, abusive, disorderly, or violent, or for clothing that is “lewd, obscene, or patently offensive.” At the time, Heasley said,“I have cousins in Iraq and other relatives going to war. Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane in midflight over a T-shirt. That’s not freedom.”
Melanie Conner, The New York Times / Redux
