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An Alaska Airlines passenger is making waves on social media after she was escorted off a flight Friday (September 3) over an outfit that allegedly didn't comply with the company's dress code, according to KOMO.
Ray Lin Howard was on a two-hour layover at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport before her flight back home to Fairbanks, Alaska. The 33-year-old woman says she was hot and decided to remove a midriff-baring crop top while in the air. That left Howard in a black sports bra.
"I was approached, maybe within five minutes of that happening and told that I needed to cover up," she told reporters Monday (September 6). "So, I put my shorts back on and I would say maybe five minutes after that I was approached again by a different flight attendant, saying my outfit was still unacceptable. That it was in the handbook that midriffs could not be showing."
Fairbanks Police was called about the incident and waiting at the airport to escort Howard off the plane when they landed. A TikTok video, which has over 2 million views, shows the woman walking off the plane with two officers behind her before entering a room.
"I was harassed about my outfit," Howard told the officers, adding that she was removed from the plane in front of her child. An officer says Howard wasn't in "any criminal trouble," and that they were trying to figure out if any laws were broken.
Reporters learned no criminal charges were filed, and that Alaska Airlines is looking into the incident. The company also released a statement to KOMO:
"We’re in contact with the guest who was on Alaska Airlines Flight 223 Friday evening," the airline says. "We’re committed to finding out what happened and taking the appropriate actions. It’s our goal to provide caring service to all of our guests. When we don’t live up to that goal, we do everything we can to make it right."
For more information about the aftermath of the incident, check out KOMO's full report.