Very Large Passenger Stirs Debate

A photo of a remarkably large man sitting on the armrest of an airplane seat that he clearly can’t fit into has renewed debate over obese passengers.

The photo, purported to be from an American Airlines 737 or 757, was published first on FlightGlobal’s Unusual Attitude blog and later in the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. Commenters on the blog who claim to be familiar with the case say the man assigned to the middle seat accepted compensation to take a later flight so the large passenger could occupy two seats.

The question of how to deal with passengers too large to sit in a single seat is certainly a volatile one. I think it’s fair to require the large passenger to pay for two seats or to wait until a flight with an unsold seat is available. But plenty of people disagree with me.