This week, a plus sized passenger on a British Airways flight found himself in a highly unusual and undoubtedly humiliating incident when he was stuck in a first-class seat for almost 3 hours after the plane landed in the UK from Nigeria. https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/british-airways-removes-suite-door-to-remove-overweight-passenger-stuck-in-seat
According to the report by the Sun, the passenger occupying first class seat No 1A which was a highly coveted seat at the very pointy end of the plane, on the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft was wedged into a seat that was typically reserved for Executive Club Gold cardholders. The passenger was travelling from Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS) in Lagos, Nigeria on July 29, 2023, to London’s Heathrow Airport where the unusual and awkward debacle really began to take off.
The aircraft landed at around 05:00 after a 6-hour flight and it was at this point that the mortified passenger seated on 1A realized that he was stuck in his seat. It was quite astonishing since the seats are the most spacious available Flight attendants tried to assist the passenger out of his seat and kept him calm.
Despite efforts from the cabin crew to assist the passenger, they were unable to shift him from his seat which led to them calling the emergency services, who began to devise a plan for his safe extraction. An engineering note, that was obtained and reviewed by The Sun, revealed the strategy to resolve the dilemma, which read that a volumetric passenger was stuck in seat 1A.
A plan was subsequently executed by the cabin crew and the door was removed to enable hoist access into the plane, which was then used to raise the passenger from the seat and, from the plane itself thereafter.
Despite the airline’s best efforts to book a seat that could comfortably accommodate their ample size, the passenger found himself stuck in a first-class seat for nearly three hours after the plane landed in the United Kingdom from Nigeria. Unsurprisingly, this quickly garnered the attention of several media outlets including Business Insider and The Sun.
While first-class seats on British Airways are renowned for their spaciousness—with Business Class Experts explaining that these seats are nearly two feet wide—they still managed to entrap the unfortunate passenger, raising questions about how well-equipped commercial planes are to handle larger passengers. A British Airways first-class seat on a B777-300ER is 78 inches wide with a seat width of 22 inches, according to Seat Guru.
Different reactions have been evoked from fellow plane passengers with regard to overweight passengers.
Different airlines follow different policies regarding overweight passengers. United Airlines, for instance, requires passengers requiring ‘extra seating’ to purchase an additional seat in advance, while certain airlines refund the purchase if one or more seats are available after the flight takes off.
In October 2022, a travel credit was offered by American Airlines to a passenger who complained of being wedged between overweight passengers on a flight.
Etihad Airways was sued by an Australian passenger in 2015 after he claimed that he suffered back pain after being seated next to an overweight male passenger on a flight.
British Airways has yet to issue a comment on the incident, which follows hot on the heels of a controversial discussion about who should bear the cost of helping plus-sized passengers travel safely and comfortably.
It may be prudent to remind them that as obesity levels continue to rise and airlines continue to seek space-saving measures for the sake of plumping-up profits, we are likely to encounter stories of this kind again soon. Airlines can’t keep sawing off doors and craning passengers back to terminals, so what exactly will they do?
