Man threatened with arrest at Heathrow for wearing Transformers T-shirt

 

 

Last updated at 11:18 AM on 02nd June 2008

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An airline passenger claimed that a security guard threatened to arrest him because he was wearing a T-shirt showing a cartoon robot with a gun.

Brad Jayakody, 30, from London, said he was stopped from passing through security at Heathrow's Terminal 5 after his Transformers T-shirt was deemed 'offensive.'

 

The IT consultant was set to fly off on a business trip to Dusseldorf in Germany when he was pulled to one side.

 

 

Brad Jayakody wearing the Transformers T-shift which caused offence at Heathrow

Mr Jayakody said the first guard started joking with him about the Transformers character depicted on his French Connection T-shirt.

'"Then he explains that since Megatron is holding a gun, I'm not allowed to fly,' he said.

'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?

 

He was cooperative with the supervisor and took off the the 'offensive' T-shirt, replacing it with another shirt in his carry on luggage.

 

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.'

 

The Optimus Prime character on Mr Jayakody's T-shirt is the most well known of the series

Thats absolutely pathetic. Its an artistic illustration!!!!!

the annoying thing is that if you went in with an ACTUAL bomb, they'd stand aside and let you on the plane straight away :rolleyes:

Wtf? :stunned:

Wtf? :stunned:

 

I think that means your death metal T-shirts are out, too!!:rolleyes:

:laugh3: that's so ridiculous! there is a limit to what can be taken onboard a flight, such as the 32kg luggage limit, but there is also a limit to how many times people can be held aside for wearing shirts like that. i mean, unless there is some bomb schematic on there or imprint saying "i am a terrorist" ok ok, maybe even "i plan to blow up this plane and all i got was this shirt" then there will be some reason to suspect lol.

:laugh3: thats sooo daft!

 

i got through with my osama bin laden t-shirt no problem ;)