The BBC and others are reporting on an Iberia flight ex. LHR that denied a group of teens boarding for safety reasons - i.e. too few hearing carers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/b...re/3919249.stm
The reports don't mention the need to hear saftey announcements / hear instructions in an emergency they just talk of "regulations" - which the CAA are quoted as saying do not exist.
Either the airline's team failed to deliver this message (fools) or the BBC etc. have chosen not to run it as it removed the "This is an infringenment of our rights angle."
I'm sorry they could not board, I personally would hav been fuming, but there is a good reason.