Because Wednesday is boring, and I like to stir the pot.

[mijan]

The headline:
"Skinny Woman bumped off flight so overweight person could have two seats."

Yes, there were circumstances involved.  The overweight person was 14 years old and traveling alone, and had NOT purchased two seats.  However, the "skinny" person had paid full price.  Nobody was asked to voluntarily give up their seat - the skinny passenger

Comments

[quiet000001]

Most of the airplanes I've investigated regarding wheelchairs, you don't get to belt in your wheelchair but rather transfer from your chair to a special narrow one and then transfer into a normal plane seat, and your wheelchair is stowed. (If you need to go to the toilet en route you have to ask for the special wheelchair again.)

Though those were transatlantic flights so perhaps things are handled differently depending on the airline/planes they use. (But I'm not sure how a fastened-in wheelchair could provide the require degree of security, since they're not designed for that purpose - there's not just the matter of fastening the chair down, but also fastening the person to the chair. In the event of a crash or rough landing or even turbulence, quite a lot of force could be put on those fastening points and the frame of the chair may not be designed for that at all.)

Regarding the actual seat belt - normally they have seat belt extenders and the problem isn't that the overweight person actually needs an entire two seats, but rather that the seats are narrow enough that the armrests have to be put up to be comfortable, and the person's legs/hips may intrude an inch or two into the other seat. It's not like they have to sit smack in the middle of the two seats to fit.

I am surprised that there was no request for volunteers, though. Maybe because she was flying standby and if they'd properly assessed the seating situation in the first place, she never would've been allowed to board because there wasn't an available seat, they didn't want to have to give out some kind of 'reward' for the person who volunteered?