Englishman Sandy Russell was informed by a stewardess to get off his flight from London Gatwick to Toronto because he could not fit in his seat — his 203kg (448lb) frame was taking up a third of the woman’s seat beside him.  If he wanted to fly, he was told he’d need to pay for an additional seat and get on the next flight.  The problem was that he couldn’t afford the extra fare and then his aunt died two days after he was due to visit her.

The passenger was naturally devastated and said he didn’t know his size would be an issue before he boarded the plane.  “I always ask, (at check-in) if it’s a big flight, if there are any more seats that are available and she said it’s a full flight,” he told BBC. “A lot of people are saying to me, well, you should have known before you went on, but I have never, ever had a problem with any airlines, until now.

The reason? It was a full flight.

Air Transat spokesman said Mr Russell’s 52-inch girth meant that the armrest could not be lowered for take-off, as demanded by regulations, and that the airline was not allowed to ask passengers their measurements before they booked a flight as it was “a breach of their human rights.” The airline offered to refund Mr Russell’s ticket.

Titanic Verdict Yes, there should be a weight/size warning when people book tickets explaining that extra-large passengers of certain dimensions will need to purchase two tickets to guarantee a spot on the plane if there are not two adjoining seats available.  However, it shouldn’t have come as a shock to Mr Russell. If he flies enough to know that he needs an extra seat and makes a habit of requesting them while flying, he should realize it’s just a matter of time before he gets a full flight and that no passenger should have to fly with someone else’s lard in their lap.  It was an unfortunate way for him to find out there was no additional seats on the plane and sad he missed his aunt, but this an increasing problem for airlines and large passengers.  On one hand, airlines are restricting space for all, which is unpleasant.  On the other, they can’t be expected to accommodate such extremely wide passengers — those who are not prepared to get help for an eating disorder will have to make other sacrifices or pay extra fees or fly on airlines that choose to be more accommodating  in this regard.

Twenty of the  350 passengers on board a flight from Dubai to Kochi suffered minor injuries when an Emirates plane hit turbulence and made a sudden 200-foot drop in the airspace over India.  The plane landed safely and all injured passengers have since been released.

A man driving an Audi sped through a security gate and drove into a parked Boeing 737 in Nigeria’s Calabar City domestic airport.  The plane belonged to the private airlines Arik Air.

No causalities were reported.
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Thirty-eight year old Robert Gary Jones — father, husband, pharmaceutical salesman — was hit from behind by a Lancair IV aircraft while jogging on the beach on Hilton Head Island.  He was listening to his iPod and didn’t hear the plane making an emergency landing.

Name Joe Sharkey
Who? Formerly a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, a reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal and, for 13 years, a columnist for the New York Times. He is the author of six books, two in development as movies. He is currently working on a book about air travel called — what else? — High Anxiety.  Check out his blog
Age 62
Countries Visited 40+

Titanic Nominations
1. Worst Flight I was flying over the Amazon in a small plane with five passengers and — KABOOM — there’s this atomic concussion.  I look out the window and five feet of the wing is missing.  Then we start losing altitude. We all think we’re going to die. So I mentally say good-bye to my family and friends. Fifteen minutes go by and we still haven’t crashed yet, but I’ve said my good-byes to everyone. So I start thinking that this is going to hurt. I dwell on that for a while. The plane will explode and I’m going catch on fire.* Then out of nowhere appears a tiny airfield and we manage to plop down on it. Turns out it’s a secret military base that wasn’t expecting us. We’re met by lots of people pointing guns and detained. And there’s no cell phone coverage here. And they don’t know what has happened. At that point, neither did we. Our theory was that another plane higher up had exploded and we hit their debris. What actually happened was that we were hit by another, much larger 737, and that plane tragically went down and 154 people died. We found out several hours later.
2. Worst Festival Pikeville, Kentucky has this Hillbilly Days festival. The well-off people dress up as hillbillies and drive around in floats depicting things like hillbilly front yards with an outhouse.  Who’s watching? The actual hillbillies. They come in from the hills and make up the spectators. I noticed there was no bluegrass music in the festival and asked the hillbilly next to me about it. He said: “anyone who can play the banjo got fuck out of here.”
3. Worst Hotel Wildwood, New Jersey has a great beach and cool-looking art-deco hotels. But they’re all terrible. Especially this place called Eden Roc. It’s run by this notoriously nasty woman who fights with the guests. Even TripAdvisor says to stay away. Best decoration detail was the beer bottle on the bottom of the pool.
4. Worst Toilet Top floor bathroom of  Port Authority bus terminal before the mid-1990s. If you went in, someone would follow you… to mug you, sell you drugs, something.. I learned to pee fast and look menacing while I was peeing — not easy to do.
5. Worst Meal About12 years ago, my wife and I were in Casablanca. Everyone said I have try the pigeon pie, so we got a recommendation for a place that specializes in it. We were the only ones in the restaurant. The pie had this flaky pastry covering it, but beneath it looked like roadkill — most roadkill doesn’t look this bad. My eyes said no, my mouth said no, but I ate it anyway (my wife sensibly avoided it). I was deathly ill the next day.

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*I told my doctor this some months later and he said “It wouldn’t have hurt.” And I replied “How the fuck do you know?”