At a time when airport
behavior is closely scrutinized for anything unusual,
passengers on a recent US Airways flight were surprised to find a
fellow traveler dressed only in a blue bra and underwear, a sheer
white sweater, black platform heels and stockings. The passenger
was a man.
Jill Tarlow, an Arizona woman who was on board the June 9 flight
from Ft. Lauderdale to Phoenix, sent a photo of the unidentified
passenger to the San Francisco
Chronicle. She said that despite other passengers'
complaints regarding the man's attire, he was allowed to board.
US Airways declined comment to ABC News, but spokeswoman Valerie
Wunder told the Chronicle that employees acted correctly by not
removing the man from the flight.
The incident came just days before 20 year-old University of New
Mexico football player Deshon Marman made headlines when he was
booted off a US Airways flight after airline personnel approached
him about his pants sagging too low.
Marman was arrested on June 15 after told to leave get off the
plane. He claims that his pajama bottoms were loose, but that just
the top of his underwear were in public view.
Veteran flight attendant Mark Gentile, currently a US Airways
union rep for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA MEC, said
that this case of the lingerie wearing man is "certainly one of the
most bizarre."
"I could see how someone could take offense to it because you're
sitting inches away from someone on an aircraft and people respect
their privacy and don't what to have that invaded," he said.
Gentile, who has been a flight attendant for 34 years, said that
passengers behaving in bizarre ways is not uncommon.
"I'm surprised there aren't books written on the situations that
occur … I don't think you could dream up this particular one," he
said, recalling a time in his career when he witnessed a man try to
use a closet as a bathroom on a redeye flight. "There's always
something new that comes up."
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