 | | Sarah Williams and Nisreen Swedberg allege that Southwest employees hassled them and treated them with disrespect. | |
 | | Sarah and Nisreen claim that they have been banned from all future Southwest Airlines flights, which the airline denies. | |
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Are these cute college co-eds too pretty to fly?
18-year-old Nisreen Swedberg and her best friend Sarah Williams caused a stir when they were quoted saying their good looks got them kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight.
“The moment we walked on the plane they started treating us rudely, so there’s no other factor that they could have added into the equation. They didn’t speak to us, they didn’t get to know our personalities,” Nisreen explained.
You might remember that last year passenger Kyla Ebbert almost got booted off a Southwest plane when an airline employee said she was dressed too sexy to fly; now this University of South Florida sophomore and her best friend claim they were subject to onboard hassles based on their appearance.
The mile-high drama began while the girls were flying from Tampa to Los Angeles and Nisreen asked for a bottle of water.
“We waited until the plane took off and everybody else got served and at that point they skipped over us.”
Sarah does admit to cursing during a screaming match with a passenger she thought was taking too long in the bathroom, but says she was unfairly blamed.
“My behavior was inappropriate, but I can’t take it back and the further consequences that we endured on the plane weren’t fair because the guy [involved] didn’t get questioned, he didn’t get in trouble.”
Four uniformed officers escorted the girls off the plane upon landing in Los Angeles, and they were questioned by the FBI.
“Hundreds of people at the airport were staring at us, taking pictures of us, wondering what we were doing,” says Sarah. The girls were released two hours later, and no charges were filed. Nisreen and Sarah say they were banned from future Southwest Airlines flights, including their return trip to Tampa.
In a statement, a representative for Southwest defends the airline’s actions based on the girls’ use of “what other passengers tell us was vulgarity, profanity, and threatening behavior onboard one of our flights...The two are not banned from the airline.”
As for the idea that they were discriminated against because they are too pretty, Nisreen and Sarah say that was taken out of context.
“There were a number of things it could have been, it could be because we were young, because she is Middle Eastern, or it could be because we are decent looking.”
“Just to be clear, you don’t think you are too pretty?” asked Woodard.
“No, no.”
“Oh definitely not!”
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