Discrimination Against Disabled Airlines Passengers
November 2nd, 2007 - Friday
Scott Rains blogs about “travel, disabilty and universal design” in Rolling Rains Reports. He gave his perspective on my experience in having to sign an indemnity form before I was allowed to board an AirAsia plane recently.
Tags: AirAsia complaint, airlines discrimination against disabled people
November 2nd, 2007 at 22:29
Peter,just realised that AirAsia operates the B737 aircraft - its what is generally termed as a “narrow bodied” aircraft having a single aisle.This makes egress for the other pax in the centre and window seat difficult if a disabled person was to occupy the aisle seat.On a “wide bodied” aircraft, there is a centre row so it is desirable to seat the non-ambulatory person in that aisle seat for ease and in case of an emergency, the other pax in the same row can evacuate from the other side of the row.
Unfortunately,non-ambulatory pax are the last to leave the aircraft in case of an emergency- this is because of the fact that the process of assisting the disabled person would hamper the speed of the evacuation.And if a disabled person was seated in the window seat in a narrow bodied aircraft,just imagine the difficulty for the rescuers to help in the evacuation.Its a sad fact.
Sooo, next time you travel ,check if the plane has a centre row.Its easier and safer I think.
Hope this helps.