Southwest Jet Lands At Wrong Airport

CNN reports:

Welcome to Branson, Missouri. Well, maybe not. A Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago's Midway Airport was scheduled to land at Branson Airport in southwest Missouri on Sunday night. Instead, the Boeing 737-700 touched down at Taney County airport -- about 7 miles away, and with a runway significantly shorter. The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation on the mix-up, as has the National Transportation Safety Board. But passengers were relieved the error didn't lead to something more serious. The Taney County airport doesn't normally handle big jets. Its runway is about half the length of the Branson airport -- 3,738 feet, compared with 7,140 feet. That required the pilot to do a lot of heavy braking as soon as the Boeing 737-700 touched down.

The jet is now stuck at the tiny airport.

Southwest Vs. Lesbians (CONT)

Southwest says:

Additional reports from our Employees and Customers onboard flight 2274 during a stop in El Paso on Sunday now confirm profane language was being used loudly by two passengers. At least one family who was offended by the loud profanity moved to another area of the cabin. Although we have reports of what Customers characterize as an excessive public display of affection, ultimately their aggressive reaction led to their removal from the aircraft. We do not tolerate discrimination against anyone for any reason. In this situation, their removal was directly and solely related to the escalated conversation that developed onboard the aircraft.

Leisha Hailey says:

In no way were our actions on Southwest Airlines excessive, inappropriate or vulgar. We want to make it clear we were not making out or creating any kind of spectacle of ourselves, it was one, modest kiss. We are responsible adult women who walk through the world with dignity. We were simply being affectionate like any normal couple. We were on the airplane less than 5 minutes when all was said and done. We take full responsibility for getting verbally upset with the flight attendant after being told it was a “family airline.” We were never told the reason the flight attendant approached us, we were only scolded that we “needed to be aware that Southwest Airlines was a family oriented airline.”

Actress Claims Southwest Airlines Booted Her Off Plane For Kissing Her Girlfriend

Actress Leisha Hailey (The L Word) claims that Southwest Airlines kicked her off her flight for kissing her girlfriend.

The actress and singer was with her partner on a flight between Baltimore and St Louis when the incident happened. She tweeted yesterday: “I have been discriminated against by @SouthwestAir. Flt. attendant said that it was a ‘family’ airline and kissing was not ok. Hailey added: “We were escorted off the plane for getting upset about the issue.@SouthwestAir endorses homophobic employees. No one made her accountable.” She has demanded a public apology and a refund from Southwest Airlines and is urging other gay people to boycott the airline.

A spokesperson for the airline said that other passengers had complained that the women's behavior was "excessive." A further statement from Southwest is reported to be forthcoming. Meanwhile Hailey has been going ballistic on Twitter.

UPDATE: Please do not respond to the trolls flocking to this post. I have deleted and banned about a dozen first-time-on-JMG commenters already. Your responses to trolls will also be deleted for clarity's sake.

Southwest Loves Your Bags

Possibly NSFW.

Director Kevin Smith Booted From Southwest For Being Too Fat

On his way home from the doing a live podcast at International Bear Rendezvous in San Francisco this weekend, director Kevin Smith was booted off a Southwest Airlines flight out of Oakland after being told he was too fat to fly.

Smith was scheduled on a flight from Oakland to Burbank, California on Saturday. According to reports, Smith had purchased two seats for his original flight but at the last minute he went standby on flight with only one seat left. The end result was no flying at all. Smith took to his Twitter account to replay the incident. "I broke no regulation, offered no 'safety risk' (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?)" he Tweeted. "I saw someone bigger than me on THAT flight! But I wasn't about to throw a fellow Fatty under the plane as I'm being profiled. But he & I made eye contact, & he was like 'Please don't tell...'" Airlines have specific rules about obese flyers - many of which require a flyer to purchase two seats if they can't comfortably fit into one seat. Since Smith couldn't fit into the one seat, he was asked to leave the flight. "If a customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seat, a customer seated adjacent would be very uncomfortable and a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a cramped, restricted seating arrangement," Southwest said in a statement. Southwest Airlines apologized to Smith for the inconvenience and offered him a $100 voucher for a future Southwest flight. Smith did not accept the voucher, and we're pretty sure this isn't over...

I had been following Smith's tweets from IBR and he handled the entire episode quite hilariously via his Twitter account. At one point the official Southwest tweeter began chiming in with profuse apologies.