Obese Woman Denied Boarding Saifullah Khan
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Worldwide Campus

Abstract

56 year old lady weighing 407 pounds was denied boarding by three airlines. Lufthansa and KLM who were not able to provide a seatbelt for her size, and Delta who did not had a wheelchair capable of handling her weight, to carry her to the aircraft. Due to the kidney failure, she died before she could have arrived home, to get the proper treatment. Now her husband holds these airlines responsible for her death and wants to file the law suit against them. The context in this research paper provided the laws associated to this case and justify whether the airlines are at fault for her death. Obese Woman Denied Boarding Vilma Soltesz flew with her husband, Janos Soltesz, from New York City to Budapest on an annual vacation to her native country without any major problem with KLM airline (Newcomb, 2012). On October 15th, Vilma made her first attempt through KLM to return to New York for medical attention, but she was asked to disembark by the captain because of her inability to secure the seatbelt (Newcomb, 2012). KLM airline representatives advise the couple to go to a nearby airport where they could catch a bigger airplane operated by Delta airline (Newcomb, 2012). On October 16th, when they reached the airport, Vilma was told by Delta representatives that they do not have a wheelchair that could handle her weight class. On October 22nd, they made another attempt to fly with Lufthansa airline but were disembarked again by the Captain since Vilma was not able to fasten the available seatbelt (Newcomb, 2012). Two days later, on October 24th, Vilma died due to kidney failure in combination with pre-existing health condition. Her husband believes that if they