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A passenger of size was flying from Lagos Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) on July 29th in British Airways First Class. When the plane landed, the man realized that he was stuck and needed engineers to help him out of the suite.
British Airways offers passengers suites with doors that convert into beds that measure over 78 inches and the seat is 22-inches wide.
The passenger was seated in 1A and realized that he could not get out upon landing. Flight attendants attempted to assist, but were unable to help. Several media outlets have reported that internal maintenance notes read:
A volumetric passenger is stuck in seat 1A. The plan is to remove the suite door and use a hoist to eject [him] from the seat.”
The Mirror reported that it took three hours for ground staff to be able to free the man from the seat by removing the door. These seats are the largest offered by the airline and comparable to what others have onboard. If the passenger cannot fit in this suite, I’m not sure what the solution is for him.
Discussions around passengers of size are contentious as there are varying levels of understanding from other passengers and some larger travelers have unfairly demanded free seats and other special accommodations such as widening the aisles (more here) or providing extra seats for free (more here).
Anthony’s Take: I’m sure this passenger was embarrassed after getting stuck in his seat. Obesity continues to plague modern society, but just as I have to make arrangements to be comfortable (I’m 6’5″ tall), passengers who cannot fit in a single seat need to address the issue themselves.
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3 comments
Moooooooooooo….
I feel like I’m missing something because I don’t understand why the suite doors had to be removed. Were they stuck closed? How did the passenger get into the seat in the first place? Did the passenger not get up once the entire flight? I feel like there are some key details missing for this story – not sure why they are being withheld. Was the passenger unwell? Had they drank too much? Just curious.
The cargo bay is pressurized, so next time…