A woman traveller from New Zealand has claimed that the staff of Delta Airlines threatened to kick her off the plane for not wearing a bra. The incident occurred on January 22 when Lisa Archbold was on her way from Salt Lake City to San Francisco.
The self-employed DJ alleged that she was "loudly" called to the front of the plane after all the passengers had taken their seats.
In a post on X, Archbold said she was treated "like a criminal" and “extracted from a delta flight for not wearing a bra.”
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Archbold describes the horrific incident
Detailing her unpleasant encounter with an airline employee in an interview with Yahoo News Australia, Archbold claimed that a staff member chastised her for the attire. Her clothes, which included long leggings and a "baggy" T-shirt, were described as "offensive" and “revealing”.
{{/usCountry}}Detailing her unpleasant encounter with an airline employee in an interview with Yahoo News Australia, Archbold claimed that a staff member chastised her for the attire. Her clothes, which included long leggings and a "baggy" T-shirt, were described as "offensive" and “revealing”.
{{/usCountry}}“After this long speech, she tells me she would allow me to stay on the flight if I put on my jacket,” Archbold said. "Keep in mind this flight was an hour and a half long so I was not going to be out of my seat again. So whatever offence she was pretending was happening from my nipples, she had just created that offence again, so it wasn't logical - it was humiliation," she added.
Archbold, who identifies as queer, said it all started when she took off her coat at the airport before boarding the flight.
“I looked like a girl who didn’t care about being dressed like one,” she said.
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Dress code or discrimination?
During the incident, Archbold even asked out loud if she had been treated unfairly because of her queerness.
When it was time to get off the plane, Archbold expressed her feelings to one of the male crew members, stating that it felt like "discrimination". "Our official policy on Delta Airlines is that women must cover-up," he responded verbatim. "It's pretty gross," she added.
Archbold said that the airline has expressed regret over the incident, but "stopped short of admitting any wrongdoing."
She hopes that they will take a strict step to ensure safety of passengers. “I don’t need miles or an apology, I need Delta to be interested in the safety of their passengers. The dress code is extremely subjective. Subjective policies are easy vessels of abuse. They are easy to shift. Let’s make everyone more safe.”