How about a man dressing like this? Wow, those are quite the getups
'Underwear traveler' apparently gets around
By Harriet Baskas, msnbc.com contributor
It seems that the mystery man recently allowed to fly on a US Airways flight wearing little but women’s underwear has been spotted at numerous airports around the country in a variety of similarly skimpy outfits.
Late yesterday, readers sent msnbc.com more photos of the flashy-flier and pointed out videos of him that have been posted on YouTube. The San Francisco Chronicle also published an interview with the photogenic passenger on the condition that it not publish his name.
It turns out he’s a business consultant who flies as a preferred customer on US Airways and often dresses in female clothing to make business travel more fun. "It has never been my intent to put people in a situation where they feel uncomfortable," the man told the Chronicle during a phone interview. "I try to respect other people's opinions. As long as my dress is not indecent from a legal perspective, and so long as the airline does not object, I have the right to wear what I wear. And others have the right to wear what they want to wear."
The man told the Chronicle that he thought his fellow fliers' photos were for personal use, not public distribution.
Jessica Villardi took this photo of what appears to be the same man, this time in pink underwear, on May 20 at Los Angeles International Airport. “I wouldn't let the kids in my party look his way,” she said.
Another reader, who asked to remain anonymous, spotted a similar-looking fellow at the Baltimore airport on Oct. 29, 2010, while he was waiting to board an AirTran flight. “I thought at the time that it may just be a Halloween weekend gag. Guess I was wrong,” the reader said.
And Sean Stecker spotted the man in Phoenix just before Christmas. “No way I was missing this, so I yelled to him on my way up the escalator and he waved to us.
The 'underwear traveler' was spotted by an msnbc.com reader Oct. 29, 2010, at the Baltimore aiport waiting to board an AirTran flight.
The San Francisco Chronicle first published a photo of the "underwear traveler" on Tuesday. The picture was provided by Jill Tarlow, who told the newspaper that she flew with the man on the same June 9 US Airways flight from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Phoenix. Tarlow said passengers had complained to airline workers before the flight, but that their complaints were ignored.
US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder told msnbc.com: "As long as you’re covered you can fly. In the picture, that man is covered. A little unorthodox, but covered."
The story surfaced after a college student was removed from a US Airways flight and arrested at San Francisco International Airport on June 16 for not pulling up his saggy pants.
Wunder told msnbc.com that University of New Mexico football player Deshon Marman's arrest was "not a matter of baggy pants. It was a matter of him not complying with crew instructions.”
Kate Hanni, director of FlyersRights.org, said that airlines need to come up with specific standards in their contract of carriage as to what a passenger can and cannot wear. "It would appear that leaving these decisions up to well meaning, but diverse airline employees and flight attendants is a recipe for mass confusion, and is frankly confusing and unfair," she said.
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Unfortunately it seems every time I go downtown for some sort of festival there are plenty of nastier people wearing less and not joking around!
