News

Scottish Girl Told She Is "Too Pale" To Fly

by Madison Fraser

Attention world: If you're looking too pasty nowadays, you may not be able to catch your flight to the Bahamas. Scottish teenager Grace Wain was stopped by flight staff members and told she was too pale to fly. Wain, a 14-year-old redhead, was on her way to vacation in the Maldives with her family when Etihad Airways gate agents expressed concerns about her boarding the flight. Based on her paleness and the fact that she appeared tired and worn down, they insisted that she was possibly too sick to fly, and demanded that she see the airport paramedic for consultation.

Apparently that wasn't enough, though, because even after the paramedic said she was okay to fly, the staff further insisted that she provide a written note from her family doctor giving her the okay. After contacting her doctor and providing a short one sentence letter vouching for her health ("I know of no reason why this patient should not fly," the letter stated according to The Daily Record), the airlines finally gave in and allowed Wain to board along with her father, mother, and brother.

Her father, Paul Wain, was astounded at the airline's behavior.

“I told them, ‘We live in Scotland. She is a redhead and she has a pale complexion. That’s just the way she is,” Wain told The Daily Record.

Oh, and if this whole skin discrimination ordeal wasn't enough, the airlines also lost the Wains' luggage on the way to their connecting flight. Needless to say, I will not be using Etihad Airways ever in my lifetime.

A lesson to take from this? Before you hit the airport to jet off on vacation, all you redheads may want to apply some self tanner. Or, you know, just try to calmly explain that pale people can be healthy too, because apparently that's a general fact of life that Etihad Airways employees weren't aware of. Oh, humanity, when will you stop disappointing me?

Images: @Daily_Record/Twitter