Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
Hi Laplap
Just out of interest I did quite a bit of searching on the Civil Aviation of HK website and I can't find the specific safety section either... however the exact words on the Dragonair (and Cathay) website appear to have come from a European Directive (see below).
There is an interesting transcript (from 2003) about the Monarch Airlines policy in relation to seating visually impaired passengers away from the aisle. That link is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyo...20030703.shtml
As supporting evidence that the text seems to come from the EU, here is a link to the corresponding page on the Ryanair website which goes a bit further to also restrict passengers of size from sitting at an exit row (etc etc) or
hindering an evacuation (same wording as Dragonair).
That link to Ryanair is here:
http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/faqs....t=ecregulation
However, checking the British Airways website there appears to be
no restriction for visually impared passengers at all (except emergency exits).
I'll keep looking for more information.
Regards
lme ff
I wouldn't use Ryanair to make any point as they have a habit of flouting rules and regulaions.
eg. contravening point 4 in these EU rules:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cg...06&nu_doc=1107 by charging wheelchair users for wheelchair services
Going back to the transcript with quotes from Monarch from 2003, which at the time was pretty much a charter airline, the conclusion from Will Bee of the Disability Rights Commission is telling:
"Currently transport services are exempt from the Disability Discrimination Act and this allows the sort of blanket approaches that we've seen here and which so discriminate against disabled people.
The government has consulted on removing that exemption and has promised to introduce a bill to give disabled people comprehensive civil rights later this year. We are pressing them to do so as soon as possible. Everyday disabled people are turned away from buses, from taxis, disadvantaged on trains or treated the way we've heard today on airlines, treated as second class citizens and we need the government to implement that bill so that by all means allocate disabled people to appropriate seats that do not impede emergency exits - as the guidance stresses - but treat them on the basis of their individual capacity, don't approach it in terms of blanket approaches which discriminate against disabled people and treat them as second class citizens."
I'm not aware if that specific bill mentioned was passed or not. I do know that the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 was amended since the transcript and does cover transport, but I am not able to isolate any paragraphs that would make the very suspect interpretations of the guidelines "passengers should not be seated in location where they could obstruct emergency exits, impede crew in their duties, obstruct access to emergency equipment or hinder aircraft evacuation" that makes certain airlines force blind passengers into window seats illegal. I am not a lawyer.
The current laws outlined in the pdf document "Access to air travel for disabled people: code of practice (1 Mb)" in this web page:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/transportforyo...ationshipping/
and specifically on pages 27 and 71 are more comprehensive.