Marine Corps veteran Catherine Banks was pulled off a flight from San Francisco on Wednesday when a flight attendant demanded she remove her shirt calling attention to veteran suicide. There were two problems for Banks: the message was important to her, and she didn’t have a bra on underneath.
The shirt read, “Do not give in to the war within. End veteran suicide,” and is part of the “22 a Day” collection from the Til Valhalla Project dedicated to raising awareness about the estimated 22 veterans who die by suicide each day. The flight attendant insisted that the shirt violated Delta’s attire policy.
As Banks was settling into her Comfort+ seat, the crewmember approached her, saying, “Ma’am, ma’am.” Initially confused, Banks realized she was the one being addressed when the attendant instructed her to get off the plane. Unclear about what she had done wrong, Banks complied and exited the aircraft, where she was told on the jet bridge that her shirt’s message was the issue. The complaining crewmember declared,
The woman agreed. Without bra, she turned around on the jet bridge, shielding herself from view, and replaced the T-shirt with a sweatshirt before reboarding the plane.
However she found the extra legroom seat she’d paid a premium for had been given away to another passenger and she was reassigned to a seat at the back of the plane. The incident delayed the flight, and she missed her connection. This isn’t the first time this year Delta has threatened to kick off a braless woman from its flights.
Usually airline dress code issues stem from a conflict of expectations between passengers and staff, with the passengers just trying to live their life as they normally do, staff trying to enforce vague guidance, and people about to cram into a metal tube for hours at a time that come from different backgrounds and who have different expectations. A couple of years ago a former Miss Universe was told by American Airlines to cover up to fly. She was in athleisure wear less revealing than what other passengers had on.
Hey Delta you’d better fire that flight attendant and you’d better do it publicly and quick or you are no longer going to have veterans traveling on your airline her behavior is despicable there is nothing at all offensive about trying to end veterans suicides
As a Veteran, I find this reprehensible. If she had a Free Palestine shirt on she probably would have been upgraded to first class.
There has to be more to the sto….. oh wait, it’s San Francisco.
Delta needs to make an immediate public apology. I doubt they will fire anybody but a review and retraining of their attire policies would be a good start.
@David and @Travelgirl … +1 to your wise comments . Absolutely No More Delta for me , ever .
Thank God DL FAs aren’t unionized so DL can do the right thing and fire that FA immediately plus make it public and also make a sizable donation to veterans. If the FA actually said they didn’t care about the veterans’s service then DL should also implement training to make sure their FAs aren’t more customer focused. As I recall DL allows veterans to preboard so obviously they care at some level.
Shame on DL if they don’t take the proper steps. Also hopefully this veteran goes very public with her story. Yo care more about causes like Palestine, BLM and gay/trans causes than America’s veterans is very sad!!
Wow, absolutely reprehensible and disgusting conduct by Delta. Hope this veteran forces Delta to lawyer up.
Delta… you have now lost my business. How dare you condone such behavior by your employees. Your representatives. I will no longer board your jets. And I’m hearing something quietly about Valdosta. I can not confirm. But I entirely hope it’s true. I’m sure your flight attendant will vote for Kamila. It is their choice. Or is it still Bernie Sanders?
@David P … Good suggestions , but Delta will never do any of them . You know , there are anti-veteran woke people slithering about .
I am a FA for another major carrier. This is inexcusable! If the Delta FA had an ounce of intelligence, he would know the shirt was meant to save Veterans lives. I hope Gloria Allred contacts this Veteran. The FA should be terminated.
But the Delta employees in Detroit wearing Muslim hijab and khimar coverings with Palestine pins are okay.
Reprehensible action by the flight attendant. Let us see what action Delta will take. One thing, why take off the t-shirt if the sweatshirt can be put over it? Were the flight attendant and other workers looking for a free show? The additional punishment of stealing her plus seat should also be addressed. A complaint needs to go to the DOT.
There has to be more to the story than this: how can a Delta skywitch be so arbitrary? I’m sure none of us has had such an experience ….!?
@jns … Things will change in 17 days .
Of course Delta will apologize and send the rouge flight attendant to more training. But how can the removal of an active military passenger seemingly be left up to a single, clueless member of the crew?
“Thank you for your service…now get off the plane…” Just awful.
Our country has gone insane while seemingly losing any resemblance of common sense. The Delta employee is clearly light years from being reasonable, but the real question is why didn’t any other employee on that plane (like the Captain?!!) pull the employee off to the side and let her know she was wrong on this one? Is there no actual Leadership on that plane? That is the disturbing part.
@Captain Freedom . The veteran served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 22 years , then worked for the U.S. Air Force for 15 years , she helped raise $ 150,000 to assist a paraplegic veteran get a home , and her sister is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran .
I hope that U.S. Marine Corps veterans will come to her assistance , and hopefully some Marine Attorneys .
The offending airline is in for a surprise .
Wonder what DL would do if I flew wearing my old Virgin America shirt? One of my old anti-Vietnam War shirts?
Clearly this is STUPID behavior on the part of the FA. (The pilots are probably vets and should have stepped in.) But even if the shirt did violate some policy (vague or otherwise), she willingly complied. So WTF is up with giving away her seat???
As much as I want to jump on the F-U Delta bandwagon, how many times have we seen more to the story a few days later. If this proves to be true as told, there should be a mass boycott of Delta until they make this 100% right, in public. 5,000 Sky Peso’s won’t do.
If nothing else comes of this it raised awareness of the Til Valhalla Project. I’ll be buying a shirt. I’d love to buy a hundred of these t-shirts and hand them out to passengers before we all board a Delta flight.
That flight attendant needs to be fired and this woman is owed some kind of compensation and an apology. Veteran suicide is a real thing and I can’t imagine there are too many people that think it should be encouraged to continue. I see absolutely nothing “controversial” about this statement on a tee shirt. I would imagine if the tee shirt had said “stop climate change” said flight attendant wouldn’t have batted an eye.
As a veteran – your slogan is good appropriate and needed. It should not have been called out – too much authority in a lower level employee. Perhaps equally disturbing is the statement I don’t care about your service. Delta is made up of many veterans many of whom learned their skills like flying and maintaining aircraft and leadership and management skills as veterans. You damn well ought to care about veterans and their service. Thank you for your service and my deepest apologies that you were shamed, mistreated and placed in a lesser seat than what you paid for as punishment.
Would like to hear the rest of this story since some parts don’t past muster, like why she took her t-shirt off braless on a jetbridge just to put a sweatshirt on instead of…just putting the sweatshirt over t shirt.
if the shirt was really the problem, and not something else which would appear to be the case, then DL should require the FA to do 40 hours of community service on her own time with the veterans support organization with which the passenger is involved.
Veterans pay an extraordinarily high price for being sent into harms way and veterans suicide is very real whether alot of people know or appreciate it.
1) could have been an SFO resident and/or based FA. You know? The libtard hate our military and country;
2) giving away the selected seat provides circumstantial corroboration
3) however, why not merely place the sweatshirt over the T shirt?
4) how is supporting a reduction in veteran suicides (or ANY suicide rate) offensive?
5) the FA was/is a power hungry douche
I agree that there’s more to this story than what is written. 1: Why would the woman take off a shirt in the JetWay only to put a sweat shirt on instead? Why not just put the sweat shirt on OVER the “offending” T-shirt? 2: The passenger was scanned aboard the aircraft but then deplaned to the JetWay until she complied but she never left the JetWay. So how/why would the gate agent “un-board” the passenger? Where was a “Redcoat” during this event? That is part of the required protocol for passenger removal. It doesn’t make sense. I find it odd that the passenger’s paid for seat was given away. If that is the case, then that passenger should be refunded the difference in fare OR be generous and refund the entire ticket cost and post the mileage to the frequent flyer account. As a Vietnam era USAF Veteran, IF the flight attendant was as rude as reported, then Delta should do something about that behavior. As “Judge Judy” would say, “If it doesn’t make sense, then it’s most likely not true.”
Why is it the corporate policy for some Delta Air Lines flight attendants to give passengers the bums rush, and, give away their seat and, kick them off the aircraft when they are wearing a premium T-shirt that brings awareness of the suicide problem of veterans serving our country?
This is a unbelievable. At every level. The tshirt promotes suicide prevention. It is in no way controversial. I for the life of me cannot see how it was “threatening”. And to make the woman undress in the jetbridge? Give away her paid premium seat while making her undress? This FA needs to be held accountable. As in be fired. And Delta needs to make this right. Not only to th Marine, but with a LARGE donation to help fund veteran suicide prevention.
How about a Public Awareness Campaign, by Airlines to inform the Public on Dress Code while onboard commercial aircraft? Clearly Americans need to be re taught civility, respect and decorum. Soon we will have Dress Code Check in, when we Check In.
Why is everything an issue with everyone. The shirt was not offensive not political.
Every business has the right to have a dress code but that code must be published adhered to enforced and not be discriminatory.
Many restaurants require men to wear ties women to have their shoulders covered. No sneakers etc.
Sweatpants are for the gym
Slippers are to be worn at home
Yoga pants are for yoga class
Halter tops went out of fashion
Pants are not meant to be worn below your a$$ unless you are a call guy
Grow up and act like an adult. The business is NOT your home and you can Not have it your way.
The customer is not always right
We need a time machine. I want to go back to the land of sanity.
Not sure if this is the whole story or not, but I think we all recognize that, in general, there are FA’s who are on a power trip and routinely abuse their authority. Right now, the airlines have all of the power because of the high demand for air travel. I would caution them about repurcussions when people have had enough of the bad bahavior.
@ Alert — No, nothing will change. Orange Pig will continue to lie with each breath as he cries about the election being rigged again. Fortunately, we don’t have quite enough stupid, hateful people to re-elect the treasonist. Cranial infarction would be a much easier outcome. There’s still 17 days!
@ Tim Dunn — Well said! I couldn’t agree more.
Will never fly delta again. Screw them. Horrible humans
THERE MAY OR MAY NOT BE MORE TO THIS STORY. HOWEVER, SHE DID NOT HAVE TO “STRIP.” ALL SHE NEEDED TO DO WAS PUTON THE SWEATSHIRT OVER THE T-SHIRT.
Who wrote this article? A 2 year old. Is less than a few paragraphs the offense was changed from a message on at shirt to a bra (lack of). She should be compensated significantly and the allegedly offended person should look away. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me! By kindergarten she should have learned that. The airline was in the wrong.
Only airline left on my boycott list is Frontier.
@FNT Delta Diamond
Yes, the hijab is ok, just like this veteran’s shirt should have been too. It’s an also, not an either or you douche bag.
Vincent why’s you have to make about you? Stop being a troll!
The New York Post has an article about this with the headline: “Marine Corps veteran removed from Delta flight, forced to change over ‘threatening’ shirt: ‘Just took my soul away’” It confirmed that the flight attendant causing this situation was male. He is the one who forced her to remove her shirt whereas a more reasoned response would be to have her cover it with her sweater (I personally don’t see the message on the shirt as threatening). Forcing her to remove her shirt with her not having a bra on could be considered sexual harassment.
Other sites have more details and there’s a TV news station interview of the passenger on Youtube..
Re, “Why not just cover up the T-shirt with the sweatshirt?” comments: The FA’s specific order was to remove the T-shirt. The passenger complied. Covering it up would not comply with the order and would make it possible for the passenger to remove the sweatshirt and reveal the T-shirt again once in the air. Mystery of the garment change solved!
The FA told her to take the shirt off and she complied “with the crew member instructions” to the letter. I don’t think the FAR can legally compel passengers to do anything the FA commands unless it pertains to the safety of the aircraft. Looks like a lawsuit is appropriate here.
If this is true, I would assume the FA hates the military. Seriously, I’m not joking. They should be fired — not simply because they hate the military, but they use their position of power to express that hate in ugly, abusive ways.
Not surprised at all as it is Delta Airlines. And I will bet they did not even refund the money she paid for that extra leg room seat either. First hand experience with that issue of “Oh by the way we have given away your seat and you will now be sitting in the most uncomfortable seat we can find on the plane.” Delta is number 1 on my never again list.
Guessing this was an excessively prominent protruding nipple through the t shirt problem and not the message in the t shirt problem. Still not right but more understandable.
Good Morning H2oman who posted on October 19: I agree with most of the comments here. Except for yours when you stated…”Oh, wait. It’s San Francisco.” San Francisco is irrelevant. The plane just happened to be in the city. It was probably not based there. The flight could just as likely have originated in Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Miami or any other city on the route. The offending flight attendant could be from anywhere.
Agreed on why she removed rather than covered it. Also, note that she’s military–more used to complying with orders from authority.
I strongly suspect this has nothing to do with military, but rather the FA found “suicide” somehow triggering. As for why nobody else on the crew said anything–remember, their focus is getting out on time. They aren’t going to review actions such as this because that would delay the plane.
That being said, there needs to be some accountability. I think a good starting point would be to require airlines to make clear rules about what is acceptable attire and if someone is kicked off for reasons of attire that don’t break the rules it’s treated as an IDB. (And I would do the same thing for anywhere in the process–they keep you from flying without a proper reason, it’s an IDB.)
Yet another reason I won’t fly Delta. As a veteran they can take their aircraft and sink ’em – all of ’em.
PSA : some Russian bots , like the one that posts here frequently , have a peculiar grammatical habit of leaving a space before punctuation marks , as demonstrated here . In addition to , of course , a very robotic verbiage with contextual acrobatics to slip in a political jab at every opportunity .