‘Prepare to Die’ T-shirt causes latest clothing stir on flight

The way Wynand Mullins tells it, a flight attendant at Qantas Airways failed to see the humor in what was written on his T-shirt. “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die,” read the quote from the 1987 cult film “The Princess Bride.”

(A quick Google search turned up several versions of the T-shirt with this quote.)

Mullins told the New Zealand news website stuff.co.nz that he was asked to change his shirt on the flight from Sydney to Auckland on Jan. 20. “The flight attendant said to me: ‘Are you able to remove it because some of the passengers are quite intimidated by it,’ ” Mullins said in the story. “I thought it was all a bit silly. The person next to me was laughing, because they knew the movie.”

A Qantas spokesman told the news website that the airline has a dress code, “particularly for slogans which passengers may find offensive or threatening.”

Qantas isn’t alone in hassling passengers over what they wear. Airlines don’t publish dress codes for fliers per se, but crew members often make the call as to what’s considered offensive or inappropriate.

Last May, a woman on an American Airlines flight wearing a T-shirt with a phrase that included the F-word was told by the captain she should not have been allowed on the plane, according to media reports. And last August, a man wearing a T-shirt that read in part “Terrists gonna kill us all” was barred from a Delta flight in Buffalo, N.Y.

Doesn’t this infringe on a person’s freedom of speech? In public places, yes. But airplanes are private property, so airlines may set their own rules -- and crew members can enforce them too, the Associated Press reports.

Mary.Forgione@latimes.com
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