A 31-year-old mother of two was kicked off an EasyJet flight. She claims it was because sexist staff did not like her sheer top. EasyJet claims it was due to her bad behavior toward the crew.
Harriet Osborne was traveling from Malaga to Stansted on EasyJet last week, wearing a see-through top that prompted some passengers to complain left nothing to the imagination. An EasyJet flight attendant approached Osborne and here is where to two different narratives emerge.
Osborne claims that the crew was rude and combative. She told The Sun:
The crew were horrible and made me feel cheap. This air hostess confronted me in front of the whole plane and said I wasn’t allowed on in that top.
She said to me, “Oh no, move to the side,’ and tried to cover me up with my hands.”
She said, “You’re not coming on my plane like that — you need to put a top on.”
Then she ordered me off the plane, so of course I put a top on. When I tried to get back on she turned to the ground crew and said, “She’s not coming on my plane.”
I was in shock. It was so sexist. I just burst out crying. We had to walk back through the terminal where Spanish police stopped to question us. They were baffled when I told them why we’d been kicked off.
Osborne also insists that though she was not wearing a bra, she used “tape” to cover up. By her account, the problem seems to be prudish behavior by one member of the cabin crew. She further indicated that she was willing to wear an alternate top provided by the airline.
EasyJet Offers A Different Account
But EasyJet presents a different account of the events. A spokesperson told The Independent:
We can confirm that a passenger travelling from Malaga to Stansted on 23 June was unable to travel due to behaving disruptively.
Following concerns about her clothing, crew politely requested that the customer wear an additional top for the flight which the customer agreed to. However, she then proceeded to act disruptively towards a member of our crew.
Our cabin and ground crew are trained to assess all situations and to act quickly and appropriately. We do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour towards our staff.
By the way, you can see what Osborne was wearing here (don’t worry, it’s safe for work). She was escorted off the flight and slept in the Malaga airport before buying a new ticket back to London the following day.
CONCLUSION
Here we have two plausible tales and perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between. This is an interesting story because in all accounts — from tabloids to mainstream news — we do not hear from any passengers.
Were you on that EasyJet flight? Let us know what actually happened onboard.
This woman’s complaint seems to be that the crew “made me feel cheap”. Yet she was wearing a sheer top, no bra and needed tape to cover her nipples on a plane in a public space. Isn’t that pretty well a definition of being cheap?
Precisely
American school brainwash kids about freedom of speech, as well as anybody can be President. On an airline or at an airport, people need to be psychologists and try to defuse hot tempers even if it means backing down. That is the sad fact of life. Make an airline employee unhappy and you are a security risk, danger to the flight, or interfering with a flight crew. What you have to do is just short of snapping into attention, saluting, and saying “yes sir!”
The attire was revealing for street clothes but not much different from swim wear.
I’m quite liberal here: Does it in any way make the plane less safe? No? Then it’s fine with me. If she behaved in any way disruptively – fine, kick her off.
I’d probably prefer something more comfortable if i where a women though. Isn’t it painful to take the tape off afterwards?
Such a fuss about nothing; can’t say it was a storm in a C-Cup for obvious reasons. Why would anyone get upset by that outfit: it’s no worse than can be seen everyday in the supermarket.
The key to this is Easyjet’s suggestion that she behaved “ disruptively “ ( not abusive or threatening).
Sounds to me like the trolley dolly got her knickers in a twist and made more of the situation than was warranted.
I’m with Thomas. Everybody wants to play the morality police in this situation, but really just leave people alone and get on with the flight. I’m sure the flight attendant approached the situation thinking they were just so morally superior that they could do no wrong…that’s not a great mindset for a flight attendant to be in. You should be able to separate “my personal beliefs about appropriate clothing” and “company policy on safety and minimal required attire”.
For all the talk about “hey we’re not here to serve you drinks, we’re here for your safety!”, incidents like this don’t really back up that claim very well.
People should be able to walk around naked if they want to. Societies fear of the human body is ridiculous.
God forbid little Timmy sees a tit.
Sharia law airline? How cute…not.
I am more turned off by someone coming on a plane, stinking from body odor (because they are too lazy to use deodorant), than I am by someone showing cleavage.