‘Offensive’ hens kicked off East Midlands flight
THE bride-to-be from a hen party booted from an East Midlands flight because the group were wearing ‘offensive’ t-shirts has spoken out.
Emma Green, 35, said her pre-wedding party had been ruined by the experience and was now worried about getting married at all.
The drama began last Tuesday morning (May 30) when Emma and her 17 were kicked off at Jet2 flight to Majorca because their t-shirts bearing the slogan ‘Bitches on Tour’ were deemed offensive.
Police were called to East Midlands Airport but no arrests were made as the party were ejected from the plane.
The party members were forced to take different flights from around the UK forking out an extra £2,500 to get to their destination.
Speaking to the Nottingham Post, health worker Emma said: “It has completely ruined the whole experience. Everybody is really tired from flying in from different airports. Some didn’t land until 2am.
“We are just gutted that it came to this when there was no need.
“Nobody even spoke to me about the T-shirts, the first I knew we were being kicked off the flight.
“The police looked bewildered by it all, I think they knew it was ridiculous. We are all professional women mainly in our late 30s and 40s. I work with mental health patients and I am not a trouble-maker.
“We did not deserve to be treated like we did. But the word bitch is a pretty mild curse as far as they go anyway, I hardly think the T-shirts were that offensive in the first place.”
Emma, of Leicester, is due to marry fiance Aaron Bateman, 44, in 11 week’s time on August 26.
She added: “Part of me doesn’t even want to get married now, I just feel like something will end up going wrong on the day.
“My hens have had to fork out an extra £2,000 to come on this holiday and that’s just not right.
“We want an apology and compensation from Jet2 because we have been treated appallingly.”
One member of the hen party was Lauren Clarke, 36, from Neville Holt.
She described the moments which followed once they had taken their seats on the aircraft.
The mum-of-three said: “We sat in our seats and some of the group took their jackets off, the writing is on the back so we didn’t think it would be a problem whilst we were sitting down.
“Then a few members of the group got taken to the front of the plane where they were told they had to leave. We hadn’t been drinking and we weren’t being rowdy.
“The air hostesses didn’t seem to mind so much but it was a member of management who had said that we all had to leave.
“If that lady had told us to take them off in the first place we would have, we all had hand luggage so it wouldn’t have been a problem, but she didn’t tell us that.”
Miss Clarke has claimed that they were only told to cover up in the check-in area and they did not have any problems in the other areas of the airport.
Jet2.com said they had no choice but to remove the women from the flight.
A spokeswoman for Jet2.com said: “They were told repeatedly to cover up including by the police which they repeatedly ignored so Jet 2 were left with no other choice but to remove them from the aircraft.”