Two women kicked off Spirit Airlines flight for wearing crop tops

Two Southern California women say they were removed from a Spirit Airlines flight last week for wearing crop tops. A flight attendant instructed the friends to disembark their New Orleans-bound flight before the plane took off from Los Angeles International Airport, they told a local news station.

The friends, Tara Kehidi and Teresa Araujo, were wearing sweaters when they boarded the plane, but they were removed because the air conditioning wasn't working.

“We were wearing crop tops … like a little bit of stomach was showing,” Kehidi told ABC News affiliate KABC. When a male flight attendant asked her and Araujo to “put something on,” the friend asked: “Can we see a dress code? Like, is there a policy that says we can't wear crop tops on the plane?”

Another woman sitting in the row in front of Kehidi and Araujo told the station that the plane's temperature forced most passengers to take off their sweaters.

“I said, 'Well, if your body is inappropriate, then so is mine because I have a crop top under my sweater.' And I took off my sweater and I was like: 'So if they kick you off the flight, they're gonna kick me and my kid off the flight,'” said Carla Hager, who was traveling with her child.

Kehidi and Araujo eventually offered to put their sweaters back on, but the three women and Hager's baby were removed from the flight without a refund.

“Everybody on the plane was looking at us,” Araujo said. He said he and Kehidi felt they were being “treated like criminals”.

While most airlines have a dress code, they are often vague and left up to flight attendants to enforce – leading many female passengers to point out sexist differences in that enforcement.

In a statement to KABC, Spirit Airlines said: “Our contract of carriage, a document that all guests agree to when making a reservation with us, includes specific dress standards for all guests traveling with us. We are investigating the matter, and we are contacting guests about their experiences.”

Airlines' contracts of carriage state that passengers may be asked to leave a flight if they are “insufficiently dressed, or whose clothing is of an indecent, indecent or offensive nature.”

Kehidi and Araujo eventually spent $1,000 rebooking a Delta flight to New Orleans to celebrate Kehidi's 30th birthday.

They told KABC they are interested in taking legal action against Atma. The budget airline has a history of headline-making snafus: from putting an unaccompanied minor on the wrong flight to stranding thousands of passengers with canceled and delayed flights.