Our world fails
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1317814,00.html
An airline passenger says he was threatened with arrest for wearing a t-shirt featuring a cartoon robot carrying a gun.
Brad Jayakody says he was stopped from passing through security at Heathrow's Terminal 5 by a guard who said his Transformers t-shirt was offensive.
The 30-year-old IT consultant, from west London, had been set to fly off on a business trip to Dusseldorf, Germany.
Mr Jayakody said a guard started joking with him about the character - Optimus Prime - depicted on his French Connection t-shirt.
He wrote on his blog: "Then he explains that since it is holding a gun, I'm not allowed to fly.
"It's a 40ft-tall cartoon robot with a gun as an arm. There is no way this shirt is offensive in any way, and what I'm going to use the shirt to pretend I have a gun? (sic)
"Now here's the stupid part. I was only taking carry-on luggage, so my clothes were in my bag, so I said I'd get changed. So I stripped off at security and changed t-shirts, putting the 'offensive' t-shirt in my bag.
"The supervisor comes over, telling me if I put the shirt on I'll be arrested."
A spokesman for Heathrow operator BAA said: "If a t-shirt had a rude word or a bomb on it, for example, a passenger may be asked to remove it.
"We are investigating what happened to see if it came under this category.
"If it's offensive, we don't want other passengers upset."
He said there was no record of the incident and the passenger "certainly didn't make a formal complaint at the time".
An airline passenger says he was threatened with arrest for wearing a t-shirt featuring a cartoon robot carrying a gun.
Brad Jayakody says he was stopped from passing through security at Heathrow's Terminal 5 by a guard who said his Transformers t-shirt was offensive.
The 30-year-old IT consultant, from west London, had been set to fly off on a business trip to Dusseldorf, Germany.
Mr Jayakody said a guard started joking with him about the character - Optimus Prime - depicted on his French Connection t-shirt.
He wrote on his blog: "Then he explains that since it is holding a gun, I'm not allowed to fly.
"It's a 40ft-tall cartoon robot with a gun as an arm. There is no way this shirt is offensive in any way, and what I'm going to use the shirt to pretend I have a gun? (sic)
"Now here's the stupid part. I was only taking carry-on luggage, so my clothes were in my bag, so I said I'd get changed. So I stripped off at security and changed t-shirts, putting the 'offensive' t-shirt in my bag.
"The supervisor comes over, telling me if I put the shirt on I'll be arrested."
A spokesman for Heathrow operator BAA said: "If a t-shirt had a rude word or a bomb on it, for example, a passenger may be asked to remove it.
"We are investigating what happened to see if it came under this category.
"If it's offensive, we don't want other passengers upset."
He said there was no record of the incident and the passenger "certainly didn't make a formal complaint at the time".