The JetBlue employee posted a photo showing her dressed as a homeless person wearing tattered and soiled clothing, with a homemade cardboard sign around her neck that read “Homeless. Need help trying to get back home to Puerto Rico or Cuba.”
“This was the costume of a JetBlue employee at the airport in Fort Lauderdale, FL,” Twitter user @nats2548 captioned a shot of the worker standing in the JetBlue terminal in the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. “I want to read your opinions.”
Este fue el disfraz de una empleada de Jetblue en el aeropuerto de Fort Lauderdale, FL.
— nats 🖤 (@nats248) October 31, 2019
Quiero leer sus opiniones. pic.twitter.com/jbOiet5fec
Netizens were enraged with such an act, and demanded that JetBlue fire the employee – or issue a public apology.
They need to fire her ASS and I demand a public apology from Jet Blue for their employees costume because as Puerto Rican I find it highly offensive and I personally won’t be flying Jet Blue until they issue a Public Apology to all 🇵🇷 and 🇨🇺 @JetBlue pic.twitter.com/0mzyHcQFVo
— Ashley (@dominopr777) October 31, 2019
YOOO! This woman works at Fort Lauderdale's airport for @JetBlue This is beyond disgusting. We deserve respect for #PuertoRico #Cuba. Also, homelessness is a serious problem. I hope the airline rectifies this immediately! #halloweencostumes #nomames @latinorebels pic.twitter.com/N57NSLu8hy
— Marlena Fitzpatrick García (@MarlenaFitz) November 2, 2019
How about the costume of this JetBlue employee at FLL? Will Puerto Ricans continue to fly with you after seeing this? pic.twitter.com/2HBds4guBG
— Josué Cabán (@josuecaban) October 31, 2019
Several people said the costume was tone-deaf to survivors of Hurricane Maria, the worst natural disaster in Puerto Rican history which left over 3,000 people dead and thousands more homeless.
@JetBlue Not sure if they know but thousands of people lost everything due to Hurricane Maria and for this Jet Blue employee to think it’s ok to joke about the epidemic of homelessness in 🇵🇷🇺🇸 is sickening and completely unacceptable that’s NO JOKE 😢😔😔
— Ashley (@dominopr777) October 31, 2019
JetBlue, the largest airline carrier in Puerto Rico, apologized in a statement to the network and said “the situation was immediately addressed.”
“In the spirit of Halloween, our crew members are welcome to celebrate in costume, but one crewmember chose a costume that was clearly insensitive and not in line with our costume policy,” said Derek Dombrowski, manager of corporate communications at JetBlue.
