Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove
We all know who Kevin Smith is, right? He’s the hilarious completion of Jay and Silent Bob (he’s Silent Bob) and also a very talented director who has sparked much interest in the entertainment industry. He should be treated with respect and dignity, not thrown off an airplane.
Smith was asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight because he didn’t fit comfortably in one seat (i.e. because he is fat). The actor acknowledges that he is overweight, but not that overweight. According to the Associated Press, Smith said, “I’m way fat, but I’m not there just yet,” and “If you look like me, you may be ejected from Southwest Air.”
The airline has a ‘customer of size’ policy that requires the customer to be able to fit in one seat. In many cases, airlines will accept a large customer’s purchase of two seats so that they can fit properly.
Smith, of course, was outraged at this. He made a big to-do about the incident on his twitter page, posted pictures of himself making fat faces, and was joined by tons of enraged fans. In this case, being a movie star helped his cause. The airline issued a heartfelt apology and even offered him vouchers for another flight.
Good for you, Kevin. To listen to Smith’s smodcast about the incident, entitled ‘Go fuck yourself, Southwest Airlines,’ visit his smodcast page. You have to admit, it has a catchy title.
Actually, it seems he’s still having problems with it. He’s angry not because he was too fat to fly, but because he passed SWA’s guidelines and was still kicked off. SWA says that if you can’t have the armrest down comfortably, then you have to buy a 2nd seat. Kevin said he was packed up, seated, buckled and ready to go. Then someone came and told he he might need to buy another seat. They went over the 2 seat guide lines and since he was already seated okay, he thought he passed. Then he was told that the pilot was kicking him off anyway.
According to Kevin, he has only gotten 2 calls and a tweet from SWA, but SWA has been telling the media that they have constantly been in contact with him. He got the tweet only after the whole thing blew up on twitter, and The first phone call last night. Kevin said that he was told in the first call that the main reason why he was kicked off was that he was a stand-by passenger and they were having problems fitting everyone. And in no way the pilot issued the order to kick him off, because it’s very unlikely the pilot even saw him. Later on SWA apologized publicly but still implied that it was the fact that Kevin could fit into a seat that got him kicked off.
My biggest problem with the whole thing is how quick SWA released Kevin’s personal information in order to prove no wrong doing. Kevin normally buys 2 seats for himself so he doesn’t have to sit next to another person. SWA was pretty damn quick to tell all the media stations that he normally buys 2 seats to cover their asses.
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[…] Kevin Smith Kicked Off Airplane «Kevin Smith Kicked Off Airplane. 16 02 2010. Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove. We all know who Kevin Smith is, right? He’s the hilarious completion of Jay and Silent Bob (he’s Silent Bob… […]