Woman forced to stand on flight after being squeezed out of her seat by obese passenger http://t.co/r5Hs7g5Blu pic.twitter.com/ldOcJhJ3pL
— Stuff.co.nz News (@NZStuff) October 24, 2014
A passenger has complained to an airline after she was squeezed out of her seat by an obese man – and forced to spend most of a trans-Tasman flight standing in the aisle.
Caralyn Young, of Tawa, says she was crammed in next to the man on the fully booked flight from Brisbane to Wellington last Monday night.
He was tall as well as being overweight, she said. “One of his legs would have been twice the size of mine, and he was taking up one-and-a-half seats, but he was a nice guy and he apologised to us.”
She complained to Air New Zealand, which was code-sharing the flight with Virgin Australia, that her flight was ruined, her safety was compromised, and the plane should never have left the Brisbane tarmac.
She felt sorry for the man, who was clearly humiliated and was unable to fit in the window seat. He moved to the aisle, leaving Young jammed between him and her 10-year-old grandson, who was in the window seat.
The man was wearing an extension seatbelt and had the armrest up. Apart from takeoff and landing, Young spent most of the flight standing in the aisle, or cramped in the flight attendants‘ area
