This article was gathered from a StoryCorps story that was first broadcast on NPR in June 2008. You can listen to Betty Jenkins telling the story via a link that appears at the end of the article.
You have to listen to this story to believe it!
Betty Jenkins, who was 94 when she told this story in 2008, was a very young woman when the incident occurred.
Betty received a present from her mother, an inflatable bra. Betty explains: “I was very skinny, and I didn’t have any curves. I guess my mother got kind of worried, because she didn’t think I had enough boyfriends…I was real excited, so I blew and blew to about [size] 32.”
Fast forward to an exciting trip that Betty took to South America. While flying near the Andes Mountains, Betty began to feel pressure and sensed a looming problem.
Imagine this: the plane cabin was not pressurized and the bra started expanding. It was size 32 when she began the journey, but Betty knew it could be inflated up to size 48. It expanded and expanded and kept expanding.
Once the bra passed size 48, one of the cups burst — making bang so loud that the co-pilot came out of the cockpit with a gun!
And there sat Betty; one can only imagine how she must have been squirming in her seat.
The plane was diverted and made an emergency landing. Betty was handed over to the authorities who ordered her to strip as they looked for what they assumed was a bomb. What a surprise they had in store. Betty explained and showed them the hole in the bra. They got quite a chuckle out of the whole thing.
Not so much for Betty. In addition to the embarrassment, Betty received a bill from the airlines for $400!
Betty’s mother loved the story so much that she kept that broken bra.
You can listen to the original story, which aired June 27, 2008 on NPR’s Morning Edition: Betty Jenkins – StoryCorps
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