Row 7, Seats A,B and Most of C
link Kevin Smith fuels row over fat plane passengers | Reuters.
You know it had to happen eventually. Mr. Smith was informed he was a safety hazard and would be denied boarding onto a Southwest Airlines flight. This not because of his larger than life movies, but literally because he was larger than life; super sized. The “world” famous director of such classics as “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy” was so annoyed with his treatment by the airline that he went all a-twitter to marshall sympathy from his rabid fans. Apparently a “wave” of protest from angry passengers supported Mr. Smith. Although “wave” is not defined as an absolute number, I suspect at least 2, both likely of plus size.
It doesn’t appear to be an issue of size per se: Smith himself acknowledged as much by actually purchasing tickets for 2 seats on the original flight. On the standby flight which he wanted to board, only one seat was available and apparently the airline made the judgement call that shoe-horning him in wouldn’t do. What’s wrong with that? Imagine if you were the person having to be seated next to a human wall. God forbid that in some kind of emergency, you’d have to climb over Mt. Smith to exit the aircraft.
It looks like he was inconvenienced by having to miss the flight and so he pursued today’s popular method of retribution, trial by media. Disregarding the fact that calling attention to his story would heap even more ridicule upon his super size, he spins the story as one of indignance and positions himself as a champion for the rights of similarly proportioned fliers. All of a sudden, it’s his rights that are being trampled. As if. What if his size 14’s were on someone else’s feet and he had to be seated next to a couple of people rolled into one? My bet is that he would be complaining about his nose being buried in someone’s armpit. Anyone who flies knows how ridiculously small the passenger spaces are these days for even an average sized person. Having to sit next to anyone tipping 300 pounds on a flight of any length is unbearable. It’s like sitting in a full nelson for hours. What if you’re claustrophobic? What if you need to see daylight?
I’ve written numerous times on encroachments on personal freedoms, but guys like Smith use their “celebrity” in order to have things their way. For them, it’s not about personal freedoms, it’s about their personal freedoms, others don’t matter. What if he had an afro hairstyle the size of a hula hoop? Are people obligated to accept his individuality? Southwest for their part were wimpy in their response, apologizing and offering a credit. What they should have offered were tickets on Sumo Airlines.