News & Views

As if nickel and diming passengers for every piece of luggage and pillow isn't enough to irritate Americans who take to the sky, now airlines are apparently getting picky over personal fashion choices in flight. Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Greenday, became the latest fashion victim when he got kicked off of a flight last Thursday for the most ridiculous reason --  he wouldn't pull up his pants.

He tweeted: "Just got kicked off a Southwest flight because my pants sagged too low!" What the f-? No joke!"

What a total joke.

Cindy Qiu, an associate producer from San Francisco's ABC7 "7 Live," was on the flight when it all went down and gave her recount of the incident.

A flight attendant approaches him and says, 'pull your pants up. He says, 'don't you have better thing to do than worry about that?' and then the flight attendant says again, 'pull your pants up or you're getting off the plane.

Sounds like someone on a major power trip, and I have to wonder if the flight attendant had any idea just who Armstrong was. I'm guessing not.

He's not, unfortunately, the first to be booted for saggy pants either. Earlier this summer 20-year-old Deshon Marman was kicked off of a flight and arrested for wearing baggy pants.  A police spokesman said, "His underwear was covering his private areas, but his pants were below his shorts, so it was in full view of the traveling public."

No, not underwear. The horror!

If schools need to ban low-slung pants because they're distracting to students that's one (questionable) thing. But unless airlines have very specific dress codes that outline just how people should wear their pants, the last thing we need is individual flight attendants deeming what we can and can't wear while flying. He wasn't showing any skin; the pants weren't going to jeopardize anyone's safety; and if people in public can't handle the sight of some boxer shorts (which plenty of girls wear alone as shorts), then there's something very wrong with those people.

Apparently Southwest saw his tweet and re-booked him on another flight. They also apologized to Armstrong over the incident and released a statement. "We reached out to apologize. We followed up ... and understand from the customer the situation was resolved to his satisfaction." Wonder how many free tickets they had to cough up for that little incident and if the skies will now be friendly for other less-influential saggy pants wearing guys?

Do you think airlines should kick people off flights for saggy pants or other fashion choices they deem unacceptable?

Image via Evill/Flickr