Waterhorse

You are into the realms of it being a personal problem. BA is not a charity, neither is any airline; if you have specific medical problems that preclude you being able to travel in the normal manner then you have to make other arrangements. The classic example of this is the broken leg where extra leg room is required. It is a personal problem not the airlines problem. If you need a club seat etc for legroom then you pay for it, or your insurance company pays for it. If your medical requirements are outside the normal remit of the airlines provision, and you have to travel, then it is likely you will have to find a different, specialist air ambulance. The FAA thing is a red herring as BA is governed by the CAA.

Soupey202

Back on topic, regardless of whether or not there was a doctor's note about seat belts, whether there were special needs or just bad parenting- if a child or children won't wear a seatbelt the Captain is correct to offload them. Even if the parents are willing to risk their child's safety they do not have the right to risk the safety of everyone else in the cabin if their child becomes a flying object due to being unrestrained. I am not anti child, I have three - now adult - and when younger my husband and I split them between us and spent our flights ( in WT or WTP) making sure they behaved and didn't annoy anyone. I must admit though it is now bliss to be in CW or hopefully later this year F and be able to relax and enjoy a drink without having to worry about someone else!

Keep it Riel

Potentially OT although it concerns being restrained during take off and landing...

Was flying BA to Jersey many years ago (gulp - 21 years ago!). Coming into land, a female flight attendant was arguing with a passenger who she alleged had called her a name. A b!%@h iirc. Not perhaps relevant, but not appropriate behavour from the passenger (it it was true), but also not the worst thing to be called...

The flight attendant was still in the aisle trying to gather names and addresses from other passengers so they could act as her witness when the wheels hit the runway.

To this day, still the most remarkable thing I've ever seen from my 650+ commercial flights.

Ldnn1

You should read some of the disruptive passenger reports I get to read!

Keep it Riel

I'd love to - can I PM you my email?

Door1Left

As crew, one of main things we ccheck pre take off and landing is that customers have their seat belts on, for infants that they are secured with a lap strap. It's the basics of our safety checks. Regardless of the situation, there are no exceptions - passengers must be safely strapped in. Many of my colleagues have echoed this. I too have had rather serious discussions with parents about securing their children. Plain and simple we would not go anywhere without this being the case. Whilst I sympathise with parents who may have a child with certain needs, it is sometimes necessary to insist on a little assertiveness on their part (and indeed discipline in some cases). Should this fail then yes the commander would be advised and would no doubt have little choice but to do the same as in this situation. I'd rather have a screaming child strapped in and be safe than the potential for them to be harmed substantially if something were to happen on take off or landing.

If it were an adult was refusing to wear their seat belt, they would in effect be breaking the air navigation order (the law of the air if you like).

Regards
D1L

Lewis Watson

Don't send these idiots to me. The amount of people I have stopped for driving on the ferry with kid in there lap driving on to ferry. Or on there phone. Or trying to drive into oncoming traffic even after being told to stop. Some times I think parents want to kill them selves and there kids.

Oxon Flyer

Folks,

Please stick to the thread topic.

FINAL CALL.

wolf72

Do you run into stubborn passengers who are neither sensible nor show any rational in that they must wear seatbelts but refuse to do so until push comes to shove and they eventually give in?

I can't think of any logical reason anyone would not want to follow instructions and put on your seat belt..it's pretty standard if you expect to fly anywhere and on any airline unless you are flying Kazak air.

henkybaby

Not entirely sure why you are reacting this way... I am merely asking if there is a way that you could be granted an exemption to the rule that I am not aware of.

I agree that BA is governed by the CAA but the rules regarding seatbelts are not that different I believe. I posted the links because the rules clearly state that the PiC must make sure every passenger is wearing a seatbelt, supporting the idea that there cannot be an exemption.

I added an example to illustrate that I could imagine someone having a huge problem if - for whatever reason - they could not wear a seatbelt assuming that condition had become permanent and they were on a different continent.

Lastly, on the Ryanair site I found all the different solutions (like CARES) to restrain a child or even handicapped adult who cannot be restrained by a seatbelt alone. I was pointing those out to people who might have an issue with a child and seatbelts. All these solutions are the responsibility of the passenger and they have to make arrangements in advance. There is a good description of what they do in the link. That's all...

Jolly nice place this has become....

EDIT: seems BA does support the Amsafe system but you can only use this in WT. How do adult passengers who cannot support their upper body travel?

Waterhorse

Sorry If I came across in the wrong way, I didn't mean to seem snippy - restrictions of the written word. All I meant was that should there be specific medical reasons that placed a restriction on the ability to wear a normal seat belt the onus was on the person not the airline to ensure that it would not be a problem. Airlines will comply with all sorts of regulations to assist people with difficulties but there is a limit beyond which personal issues are just that. Inability to comply with simple basic safety requirements may mean that the traveller needs a more specialised form of transport. Once again sorry if that came across as irritated or cross or aggressive.

LTN Phobia

I suspect there is a bit of a miscommunication here.

By saying "You are into the realms of it being a personal problem", I think Waterhorse was saying that being unable to wear a seat belt is a personal problem rather than the airline's problem, which then becomes the passenger's responsibility to sort out rather than for airlines to provide a solution, that is all, and not meant in a harsh or nasty way, followed by the fact that FAA rules aren't relevant to BA.

Waterhorse

Thanks LTN Phobia, better explained than I did.

henkybaby

Ok, no worries. I probably overreacted as well.

How do people like Stephen Hawking travel? Just a question. Can a Captain waive the requirement to wear a seatbelt?

LoveHateRelationship

Oh wow this thread blew up much bigger than I expected.

Just a few points to clarify, there was a doctor's note as per the FA who was explaining it to a few people in front of us. I'm not sure what the note said. Keep in mind, this is hearsay from the FA. As to the children's mental health, that really wasn't for me to know nor to judge. The children were being quite disruptive though in CW. Let's just say that after the family left, the cabin was much quieter.

I would imagine that there are serious safety concerns but quite frankly, IMO in the event of an accident, flying children really are the least of my worries. The bigger issue to me is in flight turbulence and the liability around something happening to these children if we were to hit serious turbulence.