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- <text id=89TT2239>
- <title>
- Aug. 28, 1989: American Notes:Airlines
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Aug. 28, 1989 World War II:50th Anniversary
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 15
- American Notes
- AIRLINES
- Offensive Behavior
- </hdr><body>
- <p> What with the increasing frequency of hydraulic-system
- failures and fares that change with the speed of the
- stock-market ticker, today's air traveler has lots to worry
- about. Now there's something else to check when settling into
- an airplane seat: Is your deodorant working properly?
- </p>
- <p> USAir didn't think the personal hygiene of Randi Freeman
- and her husband Amir Omrani was up to snuff after they boarded
- a flight from Seattle to Pittsburgh last month. Airline
- personnel asked the couple to disembark, and a gate supervisor
- informed them that both the crew and assorted passengers had
- complained about their offensive body odor. Freeman and Omrani,
- an Iranian national, were given toiletries and sent to the
- washroom as the plane left without them.
- </p>
- <p> Government rules allow airlines the right to refuse
- transport to passengers whom they deemed to be "offensive." The
- allegedly malodorous pair were placed on a later flight, but
- Freeman is crying foul. She claims that USAir simply wanted to
- clear two seats on an overbooked plane, and has demanded an
- apology from the company's president plus the cost of two
- first-class tickets from New York to Los Angeles for the
- embarrassing episode. Says she: "On the next flight, I asked a
- woman if we smelled, and she said no."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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