Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Fat passenger forced another to stand for a seven hour flight

http://www.dailynewsalert.com/story.php?id=1679
A passenger on a flight from Anchorage to Philadelphia was forced to stand for the seven hour flight because the 400 pound man next to him spilled over into half of his seat.

Arthur Berkowitz was no only unable to sit in his seat, but he couldn't use his seatbelt during takeoff or landing.

The plane should never have taken off if a passenger was unable to get his belt securely fastened because of his husky neighbor. I don't know how it was even legal for the plane to take off, but it did.

Flight attendants apologized for the inconvenience. The 400 pound obese man was a last minute addition to the flight. Attendants at the gate failed to make him purchase two tickets.

Before the obese man got on, Berkowitz thought he was going to have an empty seat next to him. He turned out not having a seat at all. He was forced to stand on one of the longest non-stop U.S. domestic flights.

U.S. Airways has apologized to Berkowitz and offered him a $200 voucher in compensation. His ticket for that flight was $800. They didn't even offer a refund for the full amount of his ticket. That's ridiculous.

For take off and landing he must have had to kind of crouch in his seat to make it at least appear somewhat safe, but not being able to use his seatbelt is definitely a hazard.

As soon as the obese man sat down they should have realized he was taking up too much room. I don't understand why they didn't have him get off the plane? It's a hazard if another passenger has to stand up.

Any flight I've been on the flight attendants are emphatic about people sitting in their seats. I see people get up to stretch for a minute and it's usually not longer before a flight attendant is telling them to sit down.

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