Friday, September 02, 2011

Saggy pants cost Green Day singer his airline seat

Posted: 3:05 pm PDT September 2, 2011
Updated: 4:16 pm PDT September 2, 2011

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong was tossed from a Southwest Airlines flight bound for Burbank because he was wearing saggy pants, according to a posting on his Twitter site.

Armstrong fired off a tweet Thursday night complaining – “Just got kicked off a Southwest flight because my pants sagged too low.”

The award-winning musician was traveling from Oakland to Burbank when he was asked to leave the plane.

In another posting on his Twitter account, Southwest posted an apology, saying they were “very sorry for your experience tonight.”

Armstrong is best known as the principle songwriter in Green Day. One of the cornerstone bands of the East Bay's burgeoning underground punk movement that was centered around weekly shows at Berkeley's Gilman Street Project, Armstrong and his bandmates -- bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool -- rose from indie success to MTV stardom with the release of their major label debut 'Dookie' in 1994.

The trio would go on to become one of the biggest punk bands of the decade in the wake of Nirvana's mainstream breakthrough. Green Day has continued its critical and commercial success ever since with their politically charged concept albums 'American Idiot' in 2004 (which inspired the hit Broadway musical of the same name) and '21st Century Breakdown' two years ago.

Armstrong’s ejection from the flight came more than three months after Deshon Marman, a University of New Mexico football player, was arrested when he refused to obey an order from a US Airways flight crew to leave a jet at San Francisco International Airport because he was wearing saggy pants.

Marman, who was boarding Flight 488 to Albuquerque, N.M., was instructed by airline crew members several times to pull up his pants to cover his underwear, both before he boarded and on the plane, according to San Francisco police Sgt. Michael Rodriguez.

Marman allegedly refused to pull up his pants and when he sat in his seat, he pulled them all the way down, Rodriguez said.

Eventually the plane's captain told other passengers on the aircraft to deplane, ordered Marman to leave the plane and then placed him under citizen's arrest for trespassing after he refused the order, according to Rodriguez.

Marman was escorted off the plane by police and then allegedly resisted officers when they tried to handcuff him. One officer received a cut to his hand and a sprained knee in the struggle. After reviewing the case, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe decided not to press any charges in the case.

"While we believe the officers on scene acted appropriately and professionally during the over one hour that they were in contact with Mr. Marman and repeatedly attempted to resolve the situation without difficulty, and while Mr. Marman could have quickly obviated the need for further intervention, we do not believe that criminal charges are warranted," Wagstaffe said.

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