UPDATE: Dr. Phil will address this topic on Friday,
March 14th's show. You can watch it at 5 p.m. EDT on Tampa Bay's
10.
Tampa, Florida – Prejudice against pretty?
That's the claim from a pair of 18-year-old best friends from
Oldsmar who were escorted off a Southwest Airlines plane.
USF student Nisreen Swedberg and friend Sarah Williams claim the
flight crew was rude to them from the moment they stepped onto the
plane at Tampa International Airport on February 14.
Swedberg said she asked a flight attendant for a bottle of water
and was told she could wait until the rest of the flight was
served.
“And I patiently waited and then when they came around with
water, they skipped me,” Swedberg said.
At one point, Williams had to use the plane's bathroom. She saw
another passenger in it, and when he hadn't come out 15 minutes
later, she knocked on the door.
When he came out, Williams says the man came over to her seat
and yelled a profanity at her. Williams admits she yelled a
profanity back at him but was puzzled when she says the flight crew
only questioned her.
“I think they were just discriminating against because we were
young decent-looking girls. I mean, nobody else on the plane looked
like us except us,” she said. “[The flight attendants] were like
older ladies. We were younger. Who knows, they could have been just
jealous of us because we were younger.”
Southwest defends the incident, saying the women caused a
disruption on the flight.
When the plane landed in Los Angeles, the women were escorted
off by four uniformed police officers and later questioned by the
FBI.
Nearly two hours later, the women were released. No charges were
filed.
Still, Williams and Swedberg say they were banned from all
future Southwest Airlines flights, including their scheduled flight
home to Tampa.
Swedberg spent $419.50 on a one-way return ticket and arrived at
TIA on Monday. Williams is still in Los Angeles trying to find a
cheaper flight home. She hopes to be back to Tampa by
Saturday.