Southwest Airlines finds itself in the midst of a rare PR kerfuffle thanks to the airline’s San Diego staff, which assumed the role of fashion police by escorting a young woman off of a flight to Tucson because she was, in their opinion, too scantily clad. (She was allowed back on the plane after objecting, but only if she covered herself with a blanket.)

The passenger—a college student and Hooter’s waitress—appeared this morning on The Today Show to tell her story. As soon as I saw the segment, I pulled up the Southwest blog, “Nuts About Southwest,” and found a brief post there by Corporate Communication Manager Brian Lusk, who serves as corporate editor of the blog. The post took no position, but merely pointed to the blog of Today show producer Dan Fleschner, who appears to take Southwest’s side:

At first, when she appeared on the set, it didn’t seem like her outfit was so inappropriate. It was clear that her skirt was pretty short, but it didn’t seem worthy of getting a lecture from a customer service representative on how to dress.

But when she sat down, we learned just how short that skirt was—when she flashed our national television audience. Yeah, that skirt was short.

So there are a lot of questions here. What is appropriate dress for flying? Who should decide what is appropriate? Should airlines have a dress code? And without a dress code, can an airline block someone from flying?

NBC opted to blur the explicit image. Fleschner points readers to a poll where they could vote on whether the outfit was too risque.While poll results favor allowing the passenger—23-year-old Kyla Ebbert—to board with what she was wearing, comments support the decision.

That’s the opposite of the comments to the Southwest blog, where all but two comments are outraged; most claim they will never fly Southwest again, and some chide the airline by recalling the suggestive uniforms Southwest flight attendants wore when the airline was new. Several commenters reject Southwest’s assuming the role of fashion cop; even San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Gerry Braun snickers, “I don’t know about you, but one of my big gripes with the airlines is that they just don’t take the time to dispense fashion advice any more.” Braun’s column tells the whole story.

The last time I remember Southwest embroiled in this kind of controversy, it was over the decision to charge overweight passengers two fares to cover the cost of two seats. I doubt Southwest wants to get a reputation as the airline that judges passenger morality, but that may be unavoidable if all its controversies feature morality overtones.

To its credit, Southwest is allowing highly critical comments to appear, including one that begins, “I will write a letter to the office address given on the home page of Southwest Airlines since I am sure my comments will not be posted here or on any of the other blog topics.”

Only two of 28 comments supported Southwest’s actions. I should note that there were 28 when I first scanned the comments. When I refreshed the page, there were more than 70, suggesting that this issue could quickly spiral out Southwest’s control. There are already 55 blog posts that match the search terms Southwest Airlines Kyla.

I’m impressed that Southwest provided a place on its blog for passengers (and others) to express themselves on the issue; certainly, the conversation would have taken place elsewhere had the airline opted not to post an item. Still, I was hoping to see a statement from Southwest, by news release if not on the blog, particularly in light of one comment that noted, “When I contacted the airlines about dress code they said there is no dress code-a bikini would be fine they said as long as it covered all the right spots.”

It wouldn’t take much to suggest that the employee who threw Ms. Ebbert off the plane was acting in the airlines’ best interest but that Southwest would undertake a training or communication effort to reinforce the company’s actual policy to ensure such mistakes weren’t made again.

If you were handling PR for Southwest, what would you advise?