You are being very rude. You just quoted my ORIGINAL post. So how was I supposed to know in advance that you were going to answer this 2 or 3 times. I am not Miss Clio!

ALRIGHT we get it! The exit rows do not have to have passengers in them. But stop acting like noone is listening to you. Also, as long as you are refering to my original post, look closely; the scenerio stated that the plane was full. So your reply doesn't answer the question fully. From other posts I see that they would most likely remove the exit row passengers from the plane.

For those who keep stating that this could never happen or the chances are nil: Watch the documentary-drama "From Here to the Moon" regarding Apollo 13. All the greatest minds at NASA state that had anyone proposed the scenerio that later crippled the mission they all would have laughed and said that it could never happen in a million years - but it did. If you need another example watch any documentary on 9/11 and if the then-head of the FAA is interviewed you will hear him state that they had no plan for bringing down every plane in the sky because they never dreamed of a scenerio anywhere near the one on 9/11. So "impossible" things do happen.

If a gate agent says "you know you are sitting in an exit row" as a pax is boarding and the pax says "yes", that doesn't mean that the pax speaks English. I know how to say "yes", "no", "thank you", and "where is the bathroom?" in about a dozen languages but I don't "speak" all of those languages.

If it is the gate agent's responsibility then why are the FAs required to confirm all the rules and why do the security videos list the rules. After all, this should be moot because the gate agents already took care of all of this.

My United FA friend tells me that he flys LAX to Guatemala often. He says that many times they can't find anyone who speaks English well and that often the plane is full of elderly people some of whom have been assigned exit row seats. Although he said he has never encountered any of my scenerios exactly he told me that, on that route, the crew sometimes has had to go row by row searching for someone who speaks English AND is not frail AND is willing to do the exit row duties.

So remember that these were, from the start, HYPOTHETICALS. It takes zero intelligence to say "that could never happen". If you can back it up with mathematical probabilities then do that but stop patting yourselves on the back for pointing out how unlikely that any of these situations could occur. We all know that the chances are unlikely if not miniscule. Haven't any of you ever played the "what if" game?