Teresa Araujo, known on social media as Teresa_aroundtheworld due to her shared travels, was traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans to celebrate a friend's birthday when she was surprised by something she “never” thought could “happen” at an airport in the USA. Which he considered “the country of freedom”

A Portuguese national was kicked off a flight with North American carrier Spirit Airlines for wearing a crop top. Teresa Araujo is a 34-year-old Portuguese who has lived in the United States for five years and, speaking to CNN Portugal, admitted that she is still “stunned” by what happened.

Teresa explains that it all happened on Friday, at 1pm (local time), on a flight connecting Los Angeles and New Orleans. Teresa says that during the entire boarding process there were no problems, even when she was already sitting inside the plane, a male assistant approached her and said: “Put a shirt on now!”

“I didn't understand what was going on,” admits the former travel influencer, who goes by Teresa_aroundtheworld, who now works at a software company. “I put on my coat and we thought: ‘It can’t be like this,’” he recalls, noting that “it was unbearably hot” inside the plane.

“I started sweating profusely, I took off my coat again, and he came again and said: Put your coat on, I won’t tell you that again,” she said, addressing the Portuguese passenger and her friend who accompanied her. Teresa explains that the only question she asked was whether she could see through the airline's dress code and the situation escalated with the flight attendant making another threat: “You'll see what happens!”

After this turbulent scenario, the plane, which was already on the runway, returned to the boarding gate so that Teresa and her friend could leave the plane. In Portuguese, a crew member said they would have to leave the plane, because the assistant in question refused to take off. “If you don't leave now I'll call the police.”

Teresa Araujo explains that she made sure she would be immediately put on another flight to New Orleans. “In the end it was all a lie, and then they explained to us at the airport that when someone is kicked off the plane, no money is refunded and they are not given another flight,” Teresa says, assuming that at that moment she “was already crying.”

“The police themselves said we were right, that we should not have left the plane, that we should have waited for them to arrive, and that we should sue the company,” he says.

He ended up paying another $1,000 for a second ticket (about €900), this time with Delta Air Lines, and waiting about five hours at LAX. Teresa admits that she never thought that a situation like this could happen at a North American airport and confirms that she only bought the second ticket because her friend celebrated her birthday that weekend.

The former travel influencer, who used to fly with different airlines, also confirms that neither she nor her friend said “anything to the assistant, they didn’t drink alcohol, nothing,” and that they just sat in their seats, they were warm and they were using short tops.

The whole situation did not go unnoticed by the rest of the passengers, and Teresa says that at least 16 people on that flight to New Orleans have filed complaints against Spirit Airlines regarding what happened. She will also file a complaint against the airline.

When asked what could be behind this situation, Teresa found no plausible reason and simply replied: “The flight attendant must have been having a bad day.”