A University of New Mexico student was arrested after wearing saggy pants onboard a plane at San Francisco International Airport. A video of the exchange between the student and members of the US Airways flight crew was captured by a passenger seated near the student and obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. Deshon Marman (shown at left during football practice at UNM) can be heard telling the captain, who was accompanied by a San Francisco police officer, “My pants are up, sir. I’m not doing anything. I paid my fees, and I’m ready to go.”
A spokeswoman for US Airways contends that Marman had been repeatedly asked by a boarding agent to pull up his pants, and that these exchanges were not captured on video.
Spokeswoman Elise Eberwein explains, When he was asked by our employee at the jetway to please pull them up, that employee was told to pull them up for him. And that exchange continued to the door of the plane.
Eberwein adds that the pants were so low that they were literally exposing areas that most people would not want to see, and that the condition of Marmans pants violated the airlines expectation of proper attire.
Marman asserts, however, that his pants were only slightly below his waist, and that when he was initially asked to lift his pants, he was unable to do so as he was holding bags in each hand.
However, Marman can be heard in the video telling the captain that he had already addressed the problem.
Marmans attorney, Joe OSullivan, claims that once Marman sat down, nothing was visible. The issue should have been over, he declared.
In the end, Marman was arrested on a number of charges, including suspicion of trespassing, obstruction after refusing to exit the aircraft under the captains orders, and battery of a police officer. While being taken into custody, police indicate that Marman injured a police officer.
According to US Airways spokeswoman Eberwein, Hes refusing to get off. The captains thinking, What if he refuses something else in the air?
Prosecutors have until July 18 to file any charges against Marman, who has been unavailable for comment following the incident.
Though the details of this event are still a bit murky, it bears a resemblance to another recent airline episode in which a man was kicked off an airplane for cursing.
Brooklyn resident Robert Sayegh was removed from an Atlantic Southeast Airlines airplane for cursing while complaining about a 45-minute delay to a fellow passenger. The Detroit Press reported that the plane, which had been taxiing on the runway, turned around and permitted Detroit Metro Airport Police onboard to escort Sayegh off.
Sayegh explains that he merely used the f-word several times in a casual conversation with the passenger sitting beside him: “I was just kind of talking to the guy sitting next to me. I said, What is taking so long? I said, What the F is going on? I could see if I directed it at the flight attendant, but I didnt even speak to him.
Even the Huffington Post bemoaned what it perceives to be further loss of liberty in its reporting of the story:
Either way, you can add swearing to the growing list of things that might get you kicked off your flight including: being too fat to fly, being too tall, and having strong body odor.
Photo: In an image taken from an April 2011 video, provided by the University of New Mexico, Deshon Marman takes part in football practice in Albuquerque, N.M.: AP Images
