Woman says Delta Air Lines ‘targeted’ her for not wearing a bra

‘It felt like a scarlet letter was being attached to me,’ passenger says

A woman said that Delta Air Lines targeted her for not wearing a bra.

During a news press conference on Thursday, 28 March, 38-year-old DJ Lisa Archbold held a news conference with her attorney, Gloria Allred, claiming that when she showed up to board her Delta Airlines flight at Salt Lake City Airport in January, she was singled out by airline staff. Archbold told the press, “I was targeted and humiliated.”

“It felt like a scarlet letter was being attached to me,” Archbold recalled of being escorted off the plane in baggy jeans and a loose white T-shirt with no bra. “I felt it was a spectacle aimed at punishing me for not being a woman in the way she thought I should be a woman as she scolded me outside of the plane.”

Once the entire plane was seated, a flight attendant came to Archbold’s seat. She asked her to speak in private and escorted her off the plane. Allred noted that Archbold suspected her braless outfit was the cause. The attorney said, “The gate agent told her that when passengers are wearing offensive or revealing clothing, Delta’s official policy is to remove them from the flight.”

Archbold was reportedly only allowed to fly under one condition: that she must wear another shirt on top of the one she was wearing. At the time, the head flight attendant reportedly informed her that “women must cover up” according to Delta’s official policy. She had been flying from conservative Salt Lake City, Utah, to the much more liberal San Francisco, California.

“Male passengers are not required to cover up their T-shirts with a shirt or a jacket,” Allred argued. “They also do not have to wear a bra to board or remain on a plane and women should not have to wear one either.”

The attorney added, “Last I checked, the Taliban are not in charge of Delta.”

She noted that according to US federal rules, airlines can only remove passengers who present a clear safety or security risk to the plane or its passengers. Archbold, however, was neither.

Although there are no plans to go forward with a lawsuit, Allred said that she and her client want a sit-down meeting with the president of Delta Airlines to ensure that their policies will be updated to reflect 21st-century values and standards.

The airline explained to NBC News that their policy states that they reserve the right to refuse to transport a passenger if the “passenger’s conduct, attire, hygiene, or odor creates an unreasonable risk of offence or annoyance to other passengers.” Earlier in the year, they reportedly contacted Archbold with an apology to no avail.