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.”
Netizens were enraged with such an act, and demanded that JetBlue fire the employee – or issue a public apology.
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, 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.