Kevin Smith Kicked Off Southwest Flight for Being Too Fat

By PopEater Staff Posted Feb 14th 2010 09:22AM

Kevin Smith is not a happy Southwest customer.

The director was thrown off a flight from Oakland to Burbank, after being deemed too fat to fly. He would later end up on another Southwest flight and now he's expressing his anger on Twitter.

"Dear @SouthwestAir - I know I'm fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?" her began.

"Dear @SouthwestAir, I flew out in one seat, but right after issuing me a standby ticket, Oakland Southwest attendant Suzanne (wouldn't give last name) told me Captain Leysath deemed me a "safety risk". Again: I'm way fat... But I'm not THERE just yet. But if I am, why wait til my bag is up, and I'm seated WITH ARM RESTS DOWN. In front of a packed plane with a bunch of folks who'd already I.d.ed me as 'Silent Bob,'" Smith continued in a succession of several tweets.

Smith even posted a photo of himself on the plane.

Then he got a little angrier. "So, @SouthwestAir, go f--- yourself. I broke no regulation, offered no "safety risk" (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?). I was wrongly ejected from the flight (even Suzanne eventually agreed). And f--- your apologetic $100 voucher, @SouthwestAir. Thank God I don't embarrass easily (bless you, JERSEY GIRL training). But I don't sulk off either: so everyday, some new f----you Tweets for @SouthwestAir."

Southwest issued a response on Twitter. "I've read the tweets all night from @thatkevinsmith - He'll be getting a call at home from our Customer Relations VP tonight."

"@ThatKevinSmith Again, I'm very sorry for the experience you had tonight. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do," the Southwest twitterer added.

But Smith didn't stop. "The @SouthwestAir Diet. How it works: you're publicly shamed into a slimmer figure. Crying the weight right off has never been easier!"

And he wanted to let the airline know he had made it to his destination. "Hey @SouthwestAir! I've landed in Burbank. Don't worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised."

Tags: kevin smith, KevinSmith

Comments

(275)

Sunday 14 February

By BOBBY

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i knew there would be a few low iqs on this site, or, maybee some of them just have a real bad self image problem, so, they attack the heavy people, it makes them feel better about therself, hey wolf. ... ill bet you didnt have a problem jumpin up into santas lap when you were a kid, or......did you

By bill

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Get a treadmill you hog!!!!!!!!!!!!

By HEIDI

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Ok first of all if this had happened to ANYONE else in the world I'm pretty sure Southwest would be getting sued right now. And the extradition from the plane would have been ugly. I LOVE Kevin Smith & his work ... but he's right he is thick skinned (pun intended)
That being said do we now have flights for fat people? Like a fat camp but for traveling? My mother & daughter just used Southwest, I don't remember weight being a booking question. Should it be? Perhaps a whole new defunked airline to fail & need bailing out just for fat people? FAT AIR ... I bet they'd give more than just pretzels!
We are remembering the year anniversary of the flight that crashed here in Clarence, NY. People died. Families lost members & Southwest is worried about fat people on the plane? Maybe the pilot should be concentrating on flying and less on his video cam!

By Joanna Casteel

Why didn't they just charge him for two seats?

Monday 15 February

By SalN

Hi Johanna, he had 2 seats for a later flight but thried to squeeze into this earlier flight where there was ONLY 1 seat left, imagine him taking a Middle seat and the 2 folks ( window seat & Aisle seat) having part of their seat squeezed into because he was too big for his seat. He knows he's too heavy, he bought 2 seats ahead of time, it is no secret!

By lbpatt

On top of being fat, he is cheap. A "director" and he can't afford to buy first class, what a tightwad...

By Jeremy

I have a solution for this problem! Have fat people fly in U.P.S. or Fedex planes. Weigh and measure them, just like packages! Problem solved! Does anyone else have a perplexing problem that I can solve for them? LoL!!!!

By Hannah

Hummmmm...me thinks that this had far less to do with his weight and far more to do with something else. Attitude? Alcohol? Disruptive passenger? Seems like there are some convenient details missing from this story....the only reason he was given was that it was a safety risk...that could be a lot of different things.

A friend of mine flies on SW all the time and he is morbidly obese...almost 500 pounds. Never ONCE has SW asked him to leave a flight, buy two seats, or anything else. He's never been treated with anything but respect when he flies with them.

I'm guessing this dude was drunk and loud, and THAT was the safety risk to which the pilot referred...I am NOT buying the "fat" story at all. Now he's just using his position to try and get something for nothing. So IMO, he deserved exactly what he got.

By jana

I don't think a 500 lb person could fit in an airplane seat. I am 6' tall and weigh 200 lb and sometimes the seat feels confined. I cannot imagine sitting next to the 500 lb man. Really

By Bill

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I am very glad that i did not have to sit next to your fat a--ed friend. how do you think the rest of us appreciate having his fat slide over into our seat space. it has happened to me a few times.

as for treating your fat friend with respect, how about treating those in the seat(s) next to him with respect?

Well, my friend always flies first class. So I'm sure neither one of you douche bags will ever have to worry about having to sit beside him.

By Jeff

If ur friend flies 1st class then he/she is NOT flying SW because they only have 1 class and that is coach.

Sonny ur a huge f8cking DOUCHE

By Margaret

This man (being deemed) too heavy to fly - ths 'deeming' should have been done prior to getting on board.
Next: Why was he OK to fly on another flight with the same airline?. He lost weight? This is not making sens to me.
I, myself have been put on standby because a huge lady I was to sit next to had put up the armrest and then pooched over into more than half of my seat. She had entered the aircraft prior to me. She had the window seat, I had the aisle seat. I can just imagine the effort to get out of the window seat for potty breaks. The flight was full. What angered me was that the overweight person was not asked to go on standby - I was. Really!!!!! there was not enought room to seat a child in the space left for me and I am a normal weight person!!!!! Luckily, they put me (at their) expense on another air lines flight leaving a half hour later and they bumped me to first class and contacted my pick up person at the destination end of the changes.
This was years ago - cannot imagine the airlines doing all that these days.

By Fat People Rock

Ahahaha, that's awesome! He should be allowed back on board only if he bought 2 tickets.

By doc

Delta is the absolute worst...the most amazingly poor customer service I have ever experience anywhere (and I am a past silver medallion member for this dopey airline).

I only hope closing down of this bankrupt airline is in the near future.

By bunny

I think the flight attendant was wrong in this situation. If the person is seated with both armrests down, where is the problem?

If, on the other hand, the person is so large that they are "spilling" into the aisle, well, that is a different situation. Perhaps finding that person two seats next to each other so that the "spillage is contained" would be the solution.

Tossing the person from the flight is, in my opinion, the verrrrrrry last solution.

Personally, I would rather sit next to a large person then a screaming baby....... I would LOVE to see all screaming babies kicked off flights [never going to happen, but it would be GREAT]. They bother many more people than a large person......

BTW, there are MANY reasons why a person can be overweight. It is NOT simply a matter of eating too much. If that were the case, anyone could lose weight simply by not eating and "Easy Weight Loss" just does NOT happen.

By miles austin jr

Hadn't heard of the guy before this incident, the pen is mightier then the sword! I'll see his next movie for sure!

By Jesse

You are a stupid dumbass. Enough said.

By NoQuarter

HELLO people can't you read? As others have already pointed out he was seated with the armrests DOWN. This means he was NOT spilling over into anyone elses seat. He was confined to his own seat. I really do not see what "problems" he was causing, now if the armrests where up and he was spilling into another seat than yes I can see SW's point however that was NOT the case here.
Sheesh people reading fundamentals 101!

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