Woman ordered to cover up crop top or leave plane: Airline apologises

LONDON: Thomas Cook Airlines has reportedly apologized to a passenger who  was ordered to "cover up" top corp or be removed from a plane.

Emily O’Connor reportedly  boarded a Birmingham-to-Tenerife flight this week when the Thomas Cook cabin crew asked her to cover up the crop top she was wearing – or she would be offloaded from the plane. O’Connor tweeted about the incident and said she’d been left "shaken and upset".

O’Connor took to her Twitter handle to share an unusual incident and wrote: "While preparing to fly March 2 from Birmingham in the United Kingdom to the Canary Islands, she was informed by Thomas Cook staff that her outfit - a cropped top with spaghetti straps and high-waist pants that exposed a section of her midriff - was "inappropriate" and "causing offense."

O'Connor had no trouble getting through airport security, but said at least four staff members surrounded her once she boarded her flight, prepared to forcibly remove her from the plane if she didn't change. In an interview with a tabloid Newspaper, O'Connor called the incident "the most sexist, misogynistic, embarrassing experience of my life."

"A gent two rows behind me was wearing shorts and a vest top and nothing was said to him," she told the publication.

Her cousin ultimately gave her a jacket to wear, but flight staff did not leave until she "psychically put it on."

The Airline has since apologised to O’Connor, a spokesman saying: "It’s clear we could have handled the situation better."