A man weighing 175 pounds says he
was forcibly removed from a flight because he weighed too much.
Illinois dentist Dan Nykaza was
preparing for takeoff on an American Airlines Envoy regional flight departing
from O'Hare to Salt Lake City when he and another passenger were booted from
the aircraft to reduce the weight, reports ABC7
Chicago.
Nykaza said he was buckled in and
had been on the plane about 20-30 minutes when he was approached by a flight
attendant who told him he needed to get off.
"And I'm like 'Why?"
Because there was too much weight on the plane and nobody would take the
voucher they were offering. So they chose two people, me being one of them.”
Nykaza says even though the
flight wasn’t oversold, he and the other passenger were told they were the last
to check in, so they were out.
The platinum status member says
he was so angry he walked away and turned down a $200 voucher.
“So I missed the entire weekend.
My nephew was there, my daughter, it was sad,” he said. “I was in shock, I
didn't sleep that night, I was kinda numb all first day or two.”
Experts say it happens more than
you may think.
“Every airplane has maximum
take-off weight. They can't take off if they are any heavier than that,”
airline expert Brian Sumers told ABC.
This comes amid a long-standing
debate over commercial airlines and obese passengers.
Yet, some say flights must always
maintain a safe weight level and that charging passengers by weight is the
future of aviation. One airline, Samoa Airline started that policy in 2013 and
last year Uzbekistan Airways started weighing passengers before boarding
its airplanes for flights.