I managed to bag myself an emergency exit seat returning from Krakow this week. I was delighted with the bit of good fortune until I realised that the 11 people around me were a stag group (annoying in its own right), but the kicker was; they were all completely leathered drunk.
I don’t mean a little bit noisy drunk or sing song dunk, I mean eyes rolling in their head drunk. They did not listen to the emergency briefing (the specific one that the gorgeous hostie gave us), in fact you could barely class them as conscious.
I didn’t want to make a big scene, but as we started the takeoff roll I was seriously regretting the decision not to mention that the pax beside me were far from able bodied. I have no doubt that the guy at the exit in my row would have serious difficulties trying to open that exit in the result of an emergency – and I base this on the fact that it took him 5 minutes to buckle his seat belt.
It’s been a long time since I’ve bagged an emergency row before, but is this not something that the crew would look for when the pax are sitting down at emergency exits?
The crew were fantastic as ever, so I am not blaming them, perhaps they simply did not notice. In all honesty I should have mentioned it, but was very surprised that some of the crew did not notice.
I found some info here
Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) , but do airlines themselves have specific policies relating to emergency exit seating?