How would you deal with this situation?

[TomVexille]

The issue is not how quickly a passenger thinks they will leave the aircraft, but whether they will be able to leave the aircraft.

Seats are designed to withstand certain stresses during an crash. Add extra weight and the effectiveness of the seat to protect the passenger and/or stay fixed may come in to question. If your seat doesn't hold properly, you may be injured to the extent you not only hamper your evacuation, but others around you.

Plane passengers are getting too fat for seat belts: Experts warn airlines to take action - Armchair Traveller

Like the extremely large woman that was on one of my flights. She would have been close to 6'6 and was rather obese. She was pre-boarded due to the fact that she struggled to walk. If there had been an evacuation I would have had to clamber over the seats to get out. But most of all I feel for the poor girl in the middle seat who got squashed for two hours.

 

[Pushka]

I have had to climb over a person in an aisle seat who was pre boarded due to incapacity. She was morbidly obese and needed a walker to move. She wasn't elderly. I was unable to get out (nor the window seat person) for the flight. When it came to disembarking, as she needed assistance then it was either climb over her again or wait. By then I was desperate to go to the loo so once again I stepped onto my seat, "held" onto the ceiling, stepped onto her arm rests and got out. As this (in reverse) was the only way I could get into my seat at the beginning then clearly it was the way I was "allowed" to do it. It was my last window/middle seat ever.

To this day I cannot believe this was allowed. If needed to be evacuated quickly I couldn't have. Well, I probably would have walked on her to get out quickly.

So TomV - I hear you because climbing was exactly what I had to do to get into and out of my seat and the crew just watched. I was a 'girl' in the middle. Lucky the girl in the window seat was slim.

 

[Deleted member]

Again. A good reason for such persons to be seated ( and paying for) in J. Maybe 1A.
I went to Bali earlier this year, *class . I was in 1A. Up and back. Had a shadow up, but sat beside a man mountain coming back. It wasn't an issue in the Dreamliner *class. Would hate to think how it would have gone in the back !

 

[JohnK]

The issue is not how quickly a passenger thinks they will leave the aircraft, but whether they will be able to leave the aircraft.

Yeah good thinking. Let's ban all obese people from air travel.

 

[russ]

That's ridiculous!
Nobody is talking about banning obese people from flying
We are merely saying that they should travel in the cargo hold

 

[Pushka]

Yeah good thinking. Let's ban all obese people from air travel.

Lets not resort to exaggeration of other's points

Lets make sure that people who have mobility issues or who have special needs with regards to seating, book the correct seat that enables everyone to sit comfortably and not have their emergency access impaired. If a person is unable to fit safely in an economy class seat then maybe its about time that airlines addressed this.

 

[Deleted member]

Yeah good thinking. Let's ban all obese people from air travel.

That's me on trains

 

[Mark3000]

Ha ha I like it

It is such a problem in the U.S. that they commonly have to send people to the zoo for CT scans because they don't fit in the human ones.

If someone is so fat that they cannot walk, then that really is a safety risk surely and I don't think they should be allowed to fly

 

[JohnK]

Lets not resort to exaggeration of other's points

Lets make sure that people who have mobility issues or who have special needs with regards to seating, book the correct seat that enables everyone to sit comfortably and not have their emergency access impaired. If a person is unable to fit safely in an economy class seat then maybe its about time that airlines addressed this.

Obesity and mobility issues are not even closely rated. Why associate one with the other? I know many underweight people who have mobility issues.

This is clear discrimination and this is how silly things get started.

 

[timster]

QF used to have seats reserved for tall people - they're called exit rows. I used to get one on almost every flight. Not any more. It's one of the main reasons I now mainly fly with airlines where I still get them for free.

Airlines could easily have several wider seats for corpulent pax at the back where the fuselage narrows and they have to lose a seat anyway.

And give exit rows back to tall people.

I didn't choose to be tall (and thin). Some fat people didn't chose to be fat.