Woman squashed by plane passenger
Virgin Airlines has paid $20,000 to a woman injured while shoe-horned next to an obese woman on a trans-Atlantic flight.
Barbara Hewson, 63, was offered damages by Virgin Atlantic after suffering a blood clot, torn leg muscles and sciatica following a flight to Los Angeles in January 2001, the UK's Press Association reported.
She said the woman passenger was so large she had to sit with the arm rests up, but when she complained, the crew said there was nothing they could do as the plane was full.
Hewson, of Swansea, Wales, who still has medical treatment, was quoted by PA on Monday as saying: "It was never about the money. No money would pay for you having sleepless nights with the pain."
The freelance writer, who travelled with her husband Roy, 67, said she spent most of her holiday in bed. "It ruined the holiday. We went out very little."
Hewson added that half-way through the flight the woman asked if she was okay, saying to her: "I'm sitting on your lap."
This may seem funny, and I suppose to some degree it is. To anyone who has been crammed into an airplane seat on an international flight, though, this scenario is hardly unusual.
Were I to be honest, I'd have to admit that I'm less concerned about the obese passengers than I am the stupid and talkative ones....
