SAN DIEGO - A 23-year-old woman who boarded a Southwest Airlines plane in a short skirt for a flight to Arizona says she was led off the plane for wearing an outfit that was considered too skimpy.
Kyla Ebbert said a Southwest employee asked her to leave her seat while the plane was preparing to leave San Diego's Lindbergh Field on July 3.
Ebbert, a student who was headed to Tucson for a doctor's appointment, said Friday on NBC's "Today" show that the employee told her she would have to catch a later flight.
"You're dressed inappropriately. This is a family airline. You're too provocative to fly on this plane," she quoted the employee as saying.
"I said, 'What part is it? The shirt? The skirt? Which part?' And he said the whole thing."
Ebbert was eventually allowed back on the plane after offering to adjust her sweater but said she was humiliated and embarrassed.
"I felt like everybody was staring at me. They had all heard him lecturing me," she told "Today" show host Matt Lauer. She appeared on the show in the same short white skirt, white shirt and green sweater that she said she wore on the flight.
Chris Mainz, a spokesman for the Dallas-based airline, said a customer service supervisor asked Ebbert to leave the plane and addressed her in the walkway leading back to the terminal, "away from the other customers."
The employee felt the outfit "revealed too much" but was placated after Ebbert made adjustments that included covering her stomach, Mainz said.
posted
she gona sew him and the airline now for kazilon milon bilon dollar for her feelings which got hurt and her nervous break down humm and she will live happy ever after lol and after she will write abook about aguy who were ababy in that air flight amr
-------------------- Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and you get rid of him all weekend. -- Zenna Schaffer Some folks are wise and some otherwise. -- Josh Billings Posts: 1499 | From: Dark Side of the Moon | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
I am speechless.....so we reward her immorality because she complains? We have no right to correct anyone or protect ouselves anymore... WE REALLY ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD IF WE WANT TO BE MUSLIMS.
posted
That is just pure ignorance. Where is freedom of expression? the outfit is fine as fine as the young woman wearing it. I think they owe her an apology big time. We can not agonize people for the insecurity of some. We can let someone like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49h1x-i830Q&mode=related&search= to practice their civil right of freedom butwe can not let people wear what they want, Last I checked there was not a fashion police in airports. I understand if she was one of those ladies that covers herself head to toe you can ask her to reveal her face so you can properly identify her but I see nothing wrong with this outfit, as Bubblemouth said some may consider it trashy but it is not a safety issue.
Posts: 176 | From: Proud to be Egyptian | Registered: Apr 2007
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A Southwest employee asked Kyla Ebbert, wearing this outfit, to change or leave the plane.
As the mercury climbed over 100 on Labor Day, I called Southwest Airlines with a not entirely hypothetical question:
Could a young woman board a flight to Tucson today wearing a bikini top?
Angelique, the agent who took my call, assured me that a young woman could.
“We don't have a problem with it if she's covered up in all the right spots,” she said. “We don't have a dress code.”
Tell that to Kyla Ebbert, who was escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight two months ago for wearing an outfit far less revealing than a bikini top.
Ebbert, a Mesa College student and Hooters waitress, was allowed to stay on the plane, but only after she put up a fight and, she says, was lectured on how to dress properly.
I don't know about you, but one of my big gripes with the airlines is that they just don't take the time to dispense fashion advice any more.
Southwest explained its treatment of Ebbert in a letter to her mother, saying it could remove any passenger “whose clothing is lewd, obscene or patently offensive” to ensure the comfort of children and “adults with heightened sensitivities.”
Ebbert, 23, says she was judged unfairly by the airline and humiliated by the experience. Who wouldn't be?
She had a doctor's appointment that afternoon in Tucson, where temperatures had topped 106 all week. She arrived at Lindbergh Field wearing a white denim miniskirt, high-heel sandals, and a turquoise summer sweater over a tank top over a bra.
After the plane filled, and the flight attendants began their safety spiel, Ebbert was asked to step off the plane by a customer service supervisor, identified by the airline only as “Keith.”
They walked out onto the jet bridge, where Keith told Ebbert her clothing was inappropriate and asked her to change. She explained she was flying to Tucson for only a few hours and had brought no luggage.
“I asked him what part of my outfit was offensive,” she said. “The shirt? The skirt? And he said, 'The whole thing.' ”
Keith asked her to go home, change and take a later flight. She refused, citing her appointment. The plane was ready to leave, so Keith relented. He had her pull up her tank top a bit, pull down her skirt a bit, and return to her seat.
Ebbert says several flight attendants overheard the conversation and, after an embarrassing walk down the aisle, she took her seat and spread a blanket over her lap. She kept her composure until the plane landed, when she called her mother and broke down.
She took a photo of herself with her cell phone so her mother could see her clothes. That's when mom became livid.
“My daughter is young, tall, blond and beautiful,” Michele Ebbert told me, “and she is both envied and complimented on her appearance. She dresses provocatively, as do 99 percent of 23-year-old girls who can. But they were out of line.”
Who knows where the lines are drawn these days, particularly when it comes to dress? If you watch television, or visit the mall, or take in a game at Petco Park, you'll see women dressed in ways that, 50 years ago, were pornographic. Today they are stylish.
A Supreme Court justice famously could not define “obscene,” and declaring a thing “lewd” imputes motive. Did Kyla Ebbert intend to excite sexual desire on that flight to Tucson? I doubt it, just as I doubt that flight attendants are proper judges of such matters.
But neither am I. So when I arranged to see Ebbert in the notorious outfit, I brought along my fashion advisers, writer Nina Garin and photojournalist Crissy Pascual, who for years collaborated on a feature in this newspaper called “Seen on the Street.”
The three of us met Ebbert and her mother for lunch at Nordstrom Cafe. Ebbert, who is 5-foot-5 and has green eyes, is pretty enough to be a model.
Yet even wearing the clothes that scandalized Southwest, she did not attract attention beyond some lingering glances.
My fashion advisers were baffled, saying they saw nothing you don't see on a college campus or in Pacific Beach.
“I was expecting to be shocked, and I was shocked the other way,” Pascual told me.
“It wasn't a big deal,” Garin said. “Her skirt was a bit short, which was only accented by her heels. If she had been wearing flip-flops it wouldn't have mattered.”
Garin wondered if a jealous woman may have complained about Ebbert's outfit. I asked her what she would have said had she been on the plane.
“ 'I hope she's not sitting next to my husband,' ” Garin replied. “She's pretty. She wears her clothes well. But I wouldn't complain about it.”
Pascual detected sexism in the way Ebbert was treated, wondering if a man would have been asked to change clothes. Do men dress inappropriately? “I see butt cracks, a lot of butt cracks,” she said.
In its letter, Southwest said “there were concerns about the revealing nature of her outfit.”
I called Hollye Chacón, the Southwest customer relations representative who wrote the letter, to see if we were talking about the same outfit.
“What exactly was being revealed?” I asked.
She said yesterday she'd call back, but never did. That's pretty revealing in itself.
posted
I`ve read that the young lady was on her way to her student-job by Hooters, a topless bar. Taking a look at the picture her outfit suits the type who should work in that kind of jobs. Not allowing her to take place in an airplane is a kind of statement. She shall sew the airline, and justice may give an opinion about it, so that things will be more clear: Is it or is it not allowed to take place in an airplane in a trashy outfit? A few weeks ago I was on Cairo International, and suddenly there was a lot of rumour. 4 Russian men were walking around, dressed in shorts and something like underwear. Besides that they all had a can of beer, so that was the cause of the rumour, they were influenced by alcohol. I remember I asked myself what an airline should do, with these rumour making, halfly drunk, halfly dressed men....Its about the same. Their behaviour was embarrassing, like the young woman also could be embarrassing to others...
-------------------- “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” Posts: 7202 | From: EU | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
?????, the link I provided on my last reply shows her in the mentioned outfit. Now pull up her shirt a little to show some belly too. But is it a reason to ban her from the flight when after she did a little adjustment she was able to go on with her planned travel anyway?
How about the flight attendant over-reacted and wanted to show off some authority? Or maybe he just had a bad day - which of course is no justification.
Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by ?????: I`ve read that the young lady was on her way to her student-job by Hooters, a topless bar.
Btw, Hooters is NOT A TOPLESS BAR.
Are you implying here that the mentioned woman has low moral standards because of her choice of workplace?
Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Lol...if she worked at Hooters, YES!... ok, just kidding (kinda). I cannot imagine (when I was doing my studies) paying for my things by working at Hooters, my parents would have killed me (not that I was stacked enough to have been accepted). I do understand, however, that not everyone is the same. That is the beauty of our country - that you are free to choose, this isn't Iran, why she would be kicked off a plane for the way she dresses is outrageous, I've never heard of that.
Posts: 13440 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
TL, if you read my post, then you would know that I said that it was to a judge to decide what can be embarrassing to others and what is not. And I didn`t imply anything, I just wrote what I`ve read about it. I don`t know that Hooters-bar, I read that it was a toplessclub and that she was on her way to it. And that she looked like a type that was working in a place to make advantage out of the way she looked.Low moral standards or not, it was her choice to act like this, to look like this, and to work like this. And there are people who don`t like that. Period. And making this personal is irritating me. Also period.
-------------------- “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” Posts: 7202 | From: EU | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
hooters is well know in the states and if you work there you are NOT allowed to go topless. this is a very strict rule of the franchise.its like a Fridays or a Ruby Tuesdays, but just waitresses that have to wear tee shirts that are skin tight with bras ON. JUST WANTED TO CLEAR THAT UP http://www.originalhooters.com/Posts: 9443 | From: USA...... | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by ?????: TL, if you read my post, then you would know that I said that it was to a judge to decide what can be embarrassing to others and what is not. And I didn`t imply anything, I just wrote what I`ve read about it. I don`t know that Hooters-bar, I read that it was a toplessclub and that she was on her way to it. And that she looked like a type that was working in a place to make advantage out of the way she looked.Low moral standards or not, it was her choice to act like this, to look like this, and to work like this. And there are people who don`t like that. Period. And making this personal is irritating me. Also period.
Lol, ????? Hooters isn't topless but it might as well be. They dress in very short shorts and skin tight low cut shirts and serve an almost exclusively male-clientele. The women are hired based on their (ahem) 'assets'.
posted
Okay, girls, let me just post this article in this topic again. Tell me what you all think of it.
19 June, 2007
Hooters in Dubai
Dubaians mourning the closure of hallowed nightspot Cyclones can rejoice again: Hooters is on its way to the sandlands!
A Kuwaiti investor plans to bring the classy and tasteful American entertainment concept to the UAE:
"I am trying to secure a location to open one restaurant this year and a year from now I will have two to three potential locations," Jamal Al Shaheen, a Kuwaiti investor, who has the franchise rights for Hooters in Dubai, told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday.
Many stores, such as Marks & Spencer, offer customised uniforms for UAE staff. For M&S, this is a black abaya with a discreet company logo trim on the cuffs. It will be interesting to see what Hooters' shariah-compliant costumes turn out to be. "Singlets and skimpy shorts" with a Hooters-branded hijab?
And perhaps UAE banks will follow the lead of their Lebanese counterparts, and offer bank loans for boob jobs. Given they'll now be a legitimate business investment for those wanting a career as a Dubai Hooters Girl.
posted
so whats the difference between the hooters girls and the belly dancers on arabic music channels, weddings, and clubs then? are they all immoral , or prostitiutes? Posts: 67 | Registered: Aug 2007
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POSTED: 1:15 pm EST November 15, 2007 UPDATED: 1:49 pm EST November 15, 2007
FORT WORTH, Texas -- An airline passenger who was asked to get off a flight and change her clothes because her outfit was too revealing has now posed for Playboy online.
Kyla Ebbert, 23, posed for the nude pictorial after a round of media interviews that included NBC's "Today" show, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "Dr. Phil."
The pictoral is available exclusively online.
On NBC's "Today" show, Ebbert told Matt Lauer that just before the crew closed the plane's doors, a Southwest employee asked her to come to the front of the aircraft.
"He told me, 'I'm sorry, but you're going to have to catch a later flight because you are dressed inappropriately,'" Ebbert said. "'This is a family airline, and you are too provocative to fly on this flight.'"
"I said, 'What part is it? The shirt? the skirt? Which part?' He said, 'The whole thing.'"
Ebbert said she was allowed to stay on the flight after she agreed to pull up her tank top and pull down her skirt.
Ebbert wore the exact same outfit that she wore on the plane on the "Today" show. She said she was on a day trip from San Diego to Tucson, Ariz., for a doctor's appointment and had no luggage.
Southwest Airlines released a statement regarding the incident.
"Southwest Airlines was responding to a concern about Ms. Ebbert's revealing attire on the flight that day," the statement said. "As a compromise, we asked her to adjust her clothing to be less revealing. She complied and she traveled as scheduled. When a concern is brought to our employees' attention, we address that situation directly with the customer(s) involved in a discreet and professional matter. Fortunately, as an airline that carries approximately 96 million customers a year, those situations are extremely rare."
Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Airlines, told Ebbert she was welcome anytime on his planes.
"I definitely have a new airline of choice,” said Ebbert, who had been a dedicated Southwest traveler before the incident.
posted
i think she looks cute as hell in that outfit... i see more inapropriate outfits everyday here in Hurghada...
Posts: 712 | From: Hurghada | Registered: Aug 2006
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I saw her on the Today Show this morning. Yeah, the skirt was really short, but does that make her a bad person? 
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