Hey guys,
I'm not a pilot, but this story just caught my eye.
From a LCC cabin crews point of view, regardless whether this story is true or not:
How on earth could he have been strapped upright??? Where???
I cannot think of any spots in a plane where you can do that. Definitely not between seats... Any ideas anyone?
Every airline regularly carries people with reduced mobility, of course it is a problem when evacuating, but that is why they always sit "out of the way". Or if they are sitting in as isle seat, then have the accompanying person to sit "inside" and make them aware of the situation should an emergency occur.
He could have bought 3 seats, would have been perfectly fine, but I assume, when they bought the cheap tickets they didn't plan on coming home in a cast... A couple of days before departure you have to pay your pants off for 2 extra seats!!! Don't know how the insurance company deals with this, but the ground stuff should have told them and assisted them with the purchase of the extra seats.
In this case (if true) obviuosly they couldn't have been bothered...
On board the crew shouldn't have taken it all out on the boy, although the problem shouldn't have got that far, in cases like that you have to deal with it. Either offload him or what I would have done is ask pax to move around so he can have 3 seats at least during the flight. If the first row wasn't fully occupied how hard it would have been to seat him in another seat where he can fit for T/O and LDG and let him sit in row 1 for the rest of the time? Done that before. Although he wasn't in a cast but couldn't bend his knee.
Oh, and what is that crap about "special seating arrangement"???
Anyway, it'll be interesting to find out if this is true...