A U.S. Marine Corps veteran recently claimed that she was temporarily kicked off a Delta flight after a flight attendant told her that her t-shirt was “threatening.”
Catherine Banks, a Marine Corps veteran, told NBC Bay Area that she was traveling to visit her sister last Wednesday and was scheduled to depart from the San Francisco International Airport. While preparing for takeoff, Banks was allegedly told she had to leave the plane over her “threatening” t-shirt, which read, “Do not give in to the war within. End veteran suicide.”
“A male flight attendant was saying, ‘Ma’am, ma’am.’ I looked around, like, ‘Who was he talking to?’ And it was me,” Banks told NBC Bay Area. “He said, ‘You need to get off the plane,’ and I was like, ‘What did I do?'”
According to the Marine Corps veteran, the flight attendant did not tell her the reason why she was forced to exit the plane until she left the plane and was on the jet bridge.
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“He said that shirt you’re wearing is threatening,” Banks told NBC Bay Area. “I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m a Marine Corps vet. I’m going to see my Marine sister. I’ve been in the Marine Corps for 22 years and worked for the Air Force for 15 years. I’m going to visit her.’ He said, ‘I don’t care about your service, and I don’t care about her service. The only way you’re going to get back on the plane is if you take it off right now.'”
The Marine Corps veteran explained that after putting on a sweatshirt, she was allowed to go back onto the plane; however, she was forced to sit in the back of the plane and reportedly missed her connecting flight due to a delay caused by the t-shirt incident.
Banks told NBC Bay Area, “I feel like they just took my soul away. I’m not a bad person, and that T-shirt, I should be allowed to support myself and veterans.”
According to Delta’s website, the airline reserves the right to “refuse to transport or may remove passengers from its aircraft” if an individual’s “conduct, attire, hygiene or odor creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers.”
On Monday, Delta released a statement to Marine Corps Times noting that the situation with Banks had been resolved. The airline wrote, “We appreciate [Banks’] patience as we continued to work to understand what occurred during this event,” and “most importantly, we are thankful for her service to our country.”
