A man says he was booted from a Chicago-bound Southwest Airlines flight on Monday due to offensive language on his -T-shirt, which the airline said went against policy.
Daniel Podolsky's troubles began when he boarded his flight in Dallas wearing a T-shirt with the words "Broad F--- City," which he got as a promotion for the Comedy Central show "Broad City" while attending Dallas' South by Southwest festival, KTVI reported.
The flight was forced to make an unscheduled landing in St. Louis due to bad weather. So Podolsky exited the plane and went to the bathroom- that's also when he removed his jacket covering the T-shirt.
When Podolsky attempted to get back on his flight, a Southwest agent at the gate told him he would have to remove his shirt due to the offensive language, he told KTVI. But Podolsky got on the plane anyway, shirt and all.
"It's only when I got back on the plane when it was gonna take off, ya know, you have this much space, you're gonna take your jacket off because it's hot," Podolsky told the station. "I took my jacket off, so he sent someone to remove me from the flight."
Podolsky said he was hauled off the plane and back to the gate where he was met by airport police and escorted out of the St. Louis terminal.
Though he says he would have gladly removed his shirt if given the chance, a video of the incident from his cellphone shows an airline worker asking if he could leave his jacket on or turn it inside out. Podolsky claims his freedom of speech was being violated.
"In the moment I was caught off-guard by this suddenly being an issue as we were about to take off, and I lost my cool a little bit," he told 1080 KRLD.
The stranded passenger was eventually able to board a flight to New York after changing his shirt.
