Originally Posted by
imagineertobe
From the European Commission Regulation No
1107/2006:
"Disabled person" or "person with reduced mobility": any person whose mobility when using transport is reduced due to any physical disability (sensory or locomotor, permanent or temporary), intellectual disability or impairment, or any other cause of disability, or age, and whose situation needs appropriate attention and the adaptation to his or her particular needs of the service made available to all passengers.
From the article:
Bolding mine, hearing is sensory.
The group, including 18 deaf people, three with hearing difficulties and one person without hearing problems, had already checked in their bags for the flight from Marseille to Bodrum in Turkey when they were told they would not be allowed to board.
So of the 22 people only 18 'deaf'
'hearing difficulties' is way to broad a term for my likes. I and I suspect many others could qualify as having 'hearing difficulties' in certain environments and sound frequencies.
So with the airlines logic they would have needed 3 FAs to deal with the 18 deaf people as they (the group traveling) had 1 'normal' hearing person that could cover the 3 'hearing difficult' and 3 'deaf' people.
I can understand the impact this COULD have in case of an emergency BUT...