The airline industry is known for its poor customer service and treating people badly.
But one disgraced action hit a new low.
And an airline threatened a Marine Corps Veteran for this awful reason.
Delta Airlines removes a Marine Veteran and forces her to change Veteran awareness shirt
Catherine Banks – a 22-year Veteran of the Marine Corps – boarded a Delta Airlines flight at San Francisco International Airport to see her sister.
She was wearing a shirt to raise awareness for military suicide.
“Do Not Give In To The War Within. End Veteran Suicide,” Banks’ shirt stated.
A male flight attendant reportedly confronted her about the shirt and told her without explanation that she had to leave the plane immediately.
Banks was confused about what was happening but complied with the request and went to the jet bridge.
“He said that shirt you’re wearing is threatening,” Banks recalled. “I said, ‘Are you kidding me?”
She tried to explain that she was a proud Veteran of the Marine Corps.
“I’m a Marine Corps Vet,” Banks said. “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.”
The flight attendant wouldn’t budge and ordered her to take off the shirt.
“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,” Banks recalled him saying.
She put on a sweatshirt but she was forced to give up her seat and was moved to the back of the plane.
Delta tried to do damage control by claiming that Banks’ shirt wasn’t the reason she was asked to leave the plane.
“A shirt promoting Veteran’s mental health is not offensive and would not be cause for removing a customer from a flight,” an internal Delta document stated. “While Delta people are empowered to constructively and tactfully take action if they observe a piece of customer clothing or behavior as potentially offensive, by our accounts, the customer’s t-shirt or other attire was not a factor in this particular situation.”
Senators put Delta’s CEO on notice for mistreatment of a Veteran
U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Katie Britt (R-AL) sent a letter to Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian asking that he “reconsider the training” for flight attendants after the “shameful” treatment of Catherine Banks.
“Raising awareness and ending the stigma are integral to improving mental health outcomes and ending our country’s epidemic of suicides. Your employee’s actions ran counter to those goals,” Britt and Graham wrote in a letter.
They said it defied “both sound logic and good faith intentions” that Banks’ shirt would “create an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance” on a flight.
“Given that over 30,000 active-duty U.S. service members and Veterans who have served in the military since 9/11 have died by suicide, we applaud the willingness of anyone working to bring attention to this issue — especially Veterans such as your passenger in this case,” Britt and Graham added.
Delta claims that it’s working with Banks to resolve the matter after the incident drew international attention.
Catherine Banks’ treatment confirms that the airline industry truly hates its customers.
Stay tuned to Unmuzzled News for any updates to this ongoing story.
