This cannot be an unusual situation. Does anyone else have any experience?
No it's not unusual. I was once called to the door during boarding because a passenger apparently had a medical problem that meant he needed a more roomy seat than the one he has been allocated
. Needless to say no one in the crew had been prenotified of this. We "rang" our medical folks who advised us that the passenger should not travel until checked out. The passenger then argued that he would be OK to travel because our first aid trained cabin crew would be able to help out should he deteriorate in flight and that we could always divert if he got really ill! this was prior to a >10 hour flight over some pretty remote areas, with over 300 hundred other folk on board - needless to say he didn't travel.
Back to the newspaper story: If this gentleman's arrangements really had been "cleared" by BA reservations and recognised medical authorities and this information was not passed on to the operating crew then BA deserve some stick. However if the first the crew knew was him saying he'd need extra water throughout the flight because he a "medical problem" then yes, I can understand him being offloaded.
if the passenger had purchased one or two bottles of water from an airside shop and asked for more once airborne the situation would not have existed.........just a thought along the lines of people taking some responsibility for themselves
dolly,
