Saggy pants, exposed underwear and flashes of skin are getting some fliers in trouble and prompting questions about what's acceptable to wear when you're stuck in a metal tube with hundreds of strangers.
Consider these recent examples.On September 1, Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong tweeted, "Just got kicked off a Southwest flight because my pants sagged too low!"
A local television producer who was on the same flight from Oakland, California, to Burbank, California, said a flight attendant approached Armstrong as he was trying to find his seat and asked him to pull his pants up. When he dismissed the request, she repeated it, the witness said. Armstrong was then removed from the flight.
Southwest Airlines said it was sorry about the incident.
"As soon as we became aware of what had happened, we reached out to apologize for this customer's experience," said spokesman Chris Mainz in a statement.
"He elected to take the next flight. We followed up with this customer and involved employees to get more details and, in our latest conversations, understand from the customer the situation was resolved to his satisfaction."
Oprah.com: What not to wear to airports
A tale of two incidents
In June, Deshon Marman -- a football player at the University of New Mexico -- was arrested on board a US Airways flight at San Francisco International Airport following an incident that started at the gate, when agents asked Marman to pull up his pants to cover his underwear, police said.
After repeated refusals from Marman, the crew alerted the captain to the disruption and police were called in to assist, authorities said.
The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office declined to file charges against Marman in the case.
US Airways did not reply to requests for an interview for this story, but spokeswoman Valerie Wunder said at the time that although the carrier does not have a specific dress code, it asks "passengers to dress in an appropriate manner to ensure the safety and comfort of all our passengers."
But the airline came under fire when it was revealed that just days earlier, it allowed a man dressed only in blue women's underwear, black thigh-high stockings and a blue tank top covered by a see-through cardigan to fly from Florida to Arizona.
The 65-year-old business consultant travels in provocative women's clothing for fun, but always covers up when asked by airline employees, he told the San Francisco Chronicle.
US Airways defended its actions in both cases.
Wunder said at the time that the incident involving Marman may have begun with his attire but escalated when "he repeatedly ignored crew member instructions."
When asked about the cross-dresser, another US Airways spokeswoman told CNN affiliate WSVN that crew members are "authorized to exercise their discretion."
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