Is It Fair To Kick A Person Off A Flight If They Smell?
We’ve talked about people being kicked off planes for being obese. It just happened to movie director Kevin Smith! The plane was full, there was no place for him to buy an extra seat, so the flight crew asked him to get on the next flight where he could have the room he needed. Another man was recently bumped from a plane for a much different reason: his body odor. This happened a few weeks ago on a Jazz Air flight about to take-off for Montreal. Passengers began complaining about the smell coming from a scruffy man. The flight crew tried isolating him, but as one other passenger put it: the body odor was “brutal.” Ultimately the man was asked to leave the plane. The airline refused to give specifics, but said the safety and comfort of their passengers and crew are their top priorities. They said Jazz Air acted in the best interest of the majority of the passengers on the plane. Penny Walsh, who was initially seated next to the man with brutal b.o., applauded the airline’s decision. She told ABC News it was an uncomfortable situation that the airline handled appropriately.
Passengers are often asked to leave a plane if they are unruly, intoxicated or refuse to follow flight crew instructions. Other times, as in the cases of large passengers who can’t fit in their seats, they’re asked to leave because they create a comfort issue for other passengers and a safety issue. However, most airlines have no policy regarding body odor. If you’ve flown the past couple years you know how packed the planes have become. Rick Searney of FareCompare.com says airlines have spent the past few years cutting flights – which means the flights that do exist are packed to the gills with bags and bodies. The days of empty seats over, and the top two passenger complaints are non-stop chatter from the person next to them – and other passengers with body odor.
03/11/2010 9:01PM
Is It Fair To Kick A Person Off A Flight If They Smell?
