Flight Flap

The story has made national headlines concerning the flight out of Sweetwater County Airport in Rock Springs Jan. 29, where Jennifer Winning of Littleton, Colo., couldn’t fly anywhere.“They wouldn’t let me get on the plane because I’m female,” Winning told FOX31 in Denver. Winning told the TV station that she arrived at the security checkpoint at least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure of her United Express flight (operated by SkyWest) to Denver, but was informed by a Transportation Security Administration employee that she couldn’t be screened because the security checkpoint had been closed and that all the female agents were off duty. If Winning needed a pat-down, there was no one available to perform it. United spokesperson Michael Trevino said the airline’s policy at the Rock Springs airport is that domestic customers must have completed their check-in process at least 30 minutes before a flight and be at the gate at least 15 minutes prior to departure. “This customer did not attempt to begin the screening process until 27 minutes before the flight,” Trevino told msnbc.com.