Man on United Airlines wears thong as mask, is banned, likens self to Rosa Park

A United Airlines customer used a red thong to cover his face in protest of the federal mask mandate on flights and has reportedly been banned from flying with the carrier. The anti-masker went on to compare himself to civil rights icons including Rosa Parks.

Adam Jenne, of Cape Coral, Florida, said he was booted after boarding a United Airlines plane in Fort Lauderdale that was destined for Washington, DC.

Video footage recorded from a window seat shows Jenne, sitting in an aisle seat, with the bright panties hooked around his ears and covering his nose and mouth.

The clips shows Jenne, in his seat, speaking to a female flight attendant and a male United employee standing over him, in separately encounters. The content of the conversations was not clear.

Jenne said he was forced to get off the plane – and that it was the first time he was made to do so in the nearly two dozen times during the pandemic that he has flown with underwear on his face. He has no intention of refraining from wearing his statement piece.

‘I think the best way to illustrate absurdity is with absurdity,’ Jenne told NBC2 after the Wednesday incident.

‘Every single flight has been met with different, different reactions from the flight crew.’

Jenne added, ‘I am banned from flying United so, so much for the customer is always right.’

Video clips showed Jenne getting up and walking toward the front of the plane – and to his surprise, an older man and another customers appearing to voluntarily leave the aircraft, apparently in support.

‘It’s all nonsense,’ Jenne told the TV station of the federal mask mandate aboard planes.

‘Covid doesn’t know that we’re at cruising altitude. It’s stupid. The whole thing is theater.’

A United Airlines spokesperson praised the employees for confronting Jenne before the plane departed.

‘The customer clearly wasn’t in compliance with the federal mask mandate and we appreciate that our team addressed the issue on the ground prior to takeoff, avoiding any potential disruptions (in) the air,’ the statement read.

United Airlines provided Jenne with a refund for the flight.

Jenne said that he doesn’t wear his mask in airports ‘at all’, besides clearing TSA, and that he would try to fly again the next day.

‘Hopefully, Spirit Airlines has a better sense of humor,’ he said. ‘We’ll see, I guess.’

Additionally, Jenne went so far as comparing himself to civil rights activists including Rosa Parks, who has been honored as ‘the mother of the freedom movement’ for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.

‘Everything else that has sparked change in this country has started from everyday people. Rosa Parks was nobody famous,’ Jenne said. ‘She changed the course of history.’

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