Woman thrown off flight for 'not wearing knickers'

A woman flying from Harlem, US, on a JetBlue Airlines plane was removed from a West Palm Beach-bound flight for 'not wearing underwear'.

Malinda Knowles, a 27-year-old financial consultant and former model, claims the pilot on the 6am flight thought she 'wasn't wearing knickers'.

But she told Daily News that she was 'wearing a baggy blue T-shirt over a pair of dark denim short-shorts' that she had thrown on when she got up at 4am.

According to Knowles, Victor Rodriguez, a JetBlue supervisor, approached her on the plane as she was 'sitting with her orange juice' and asked, 'I don't want to see your panties, but do you have any on?'

He then 'slapped his walkie-talkie in between [my] legs', Knowles claims in a lawsuit she filed at the Queens Supreme Court. 'I didn't want to show him my crotch,"'she said. 'It was humiliating, degrading, and highly inappropriate.'

The New York Post reports that she was then escorted off the flight and taken to a hangar area where they confirmed she was wearing pants. According to Knowles' suit an employee said, 'Oh, she's wearing shorts.' Knowles tells the Daily News: 'It was really crazy. I've never had a corporate employee ask me about my underwear.'

Knowles was then returned to the plane, but the pilot still would not fly with her. Rodriguez again approached her and said, 'The captain is refusing to fly you today. We need to remove you from the flight.'

Knowles was particularly annoyed because she had a business meeting in Florida, but finally agreed to be taken off the flight after fellow passengers grew impatient with the delay.

As she walked off the plane, a fellow passenger reportedly told her: 'You should get a lawyer.'

Knowles waited for another four hours before catching a later JetBlue flight.

The civil suit seeks unspecified damages and accuses Rodriguez of assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

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