Man kicked off plane for wearing thong as face mask

The 38-year-old man likens himself to civil rights activist Rosa Parks, and hopes to change history with ‘absurd’ facemask protest on flights.

Man kicked off plane for wearing women’s thong as face mask
© Getty Images
Man kicked off plane for wearing women’s thong as face mask

A man was kicked off a United Airlines flight for wearing women’s underwear on his face in place of a mask. Other passengers got off the plane with him in solidarity against the insistence of flight crew that he wear a proper mask.

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Thong protest

Adam Jenne, 38, was travelling to Washington from Fort Lauderdale airport when the incident happened. Dressed in an anti-Biden T-shirt, Jenne wore the red g-string over his head and face and refused to take it off when confronted by the crew.

In a video footage of the encounter, the flight attendant can be heard saying:

You're going to have to come off the plane. We're not going to let you travel. You're not in mask compliance.

According to Jenne, this is not the first time he was travelling on planes with the makeshift face mask, claiming to have pulled the stunt more than a dozen times with no incident. He told NBC2:

Every single flight has been met with different reactions from the flight crew. Some with a wild appreciation, others confrontational.

Rosa Parks Moment

This time around, he was asked by staff of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to get off the plane. Jenne likened himself to the iconic civil rights activist Rosa Parks, who refused to move for a white bus passenger during the American segregation in 1955. Jenne said:

Everything else that has sparked change in this country has come from everyday people, Rosa Parks was nobody famous, she changed the course of history.

He claimed that about a thousand other passengers got off the flight in support of his protest, with one passenger saying in the video:

Did he just get kicked off for wearing a mask? I’m out of here, forget it. I’m out of here.

Jenne, who has since received a refund, has been banned from United Airline carriers. He intends to continue wearing the improvised face mask on all his trips, saying:

It’s nonsense, it’s all nonsense, Covid doesn’t know that we’re cruising at altitude. It’s stupid, the whole thing is theatre. I think the best way to illustrate absurdity is with absurdity
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