Originally Posted by
DIRECT MERIT
This where the story gets more interesting. A gentleman on crutches now approaches with another FA from somewhere further back in coach and sits in 16A - right by the emergency exit. I take my safety seriously (a friend was on the BA 777 that ran out of fuel on final approach to LHR), and I quietly told "my" FA that I was not at all happy about a guy on crutches sitting by the exit door, between me and my safety. I don't know what the FAA mandated egress time for a fully loaded 773 is, but if it's 90 seconds I think every single second counts. The FA, correctly sensing I might be about to off-load myself, asked the guy in 16A to swap with me - so somewhat accidentally I ended up in the exit window while he sat next to the fat woman in 16D. It was only when the guy on crutches moved over to 16D that I saw he had a prosthetic leg - which made me doubly glad he wasn't in 16A.
Apologies if this is a silly question but I'm not well versed with the plane configuration. Was 16D not part of the exit row, and as such, shouldn't it have been off-limits to the gentleman with crutches? Just wondering.