The story of the 409 pound woman who allegedly died due to the airlines inability to accommodate her huge mass ignited a flood of opinions on “who was to blame”. The number of comments on Yahoo soared past 23,000 with many decidedly unsympathetic comments.
OMFG
The death of a 407-pound woman after being denied boarding on three flights was “preventable,” according to an attorney for the woman’s husband, who plans to pursue legal action against three airlines.
Vilma Soltesz, 56, died of kidney failure on Oct. 24 in Hungary, where she and her husband, Janos Soltesz, took an annual vacation to a home they owned in their native country, said Soltesz’ attorney, Holly Ostrov-Ronai.
When the couple went to the airport on Oct. 15 to board a KLM night flight home to New York, they were able to board. However, Ostrov-Ronai said the captain asked Vilma Soltesz to disembark because she could not be secured in her seat due to an issue with a seat back.
They were advised to drive to Prague, where they could catch a “bigger plane” operated by Delta Airlines. When they arrived, Ostrov-Ronai said, the couple was told that Delta only had a plastic wheelchair that could not handle Vilma’s weight and that there was no sky lift available to get her onto the plane.
“Despite a determined good-faith effort by Delta in Prague, we were also physically unable to board her on our aircraft on Oct. 16. For this reason there was never an issue with the use of seat belt extenders,” he said.
The couple drove back to their home in Hungary and made another effort, this time through Lufthansa, to get back to the United States. When they boarded, they were forced to disembark by the captain, Ostrov-Ronai said, because Vilma was unable to fasten her seatbelt properly.
The airline said it worked with local partners, the fire brigade and technical experts to accommodate Soltesz, but to no avail.
“After several time-consuming attempts it was decided that for the safety of this passenger and the over 140 fellow passengers, Lufthansa had to deny transportation of the passenger,” said a statement issued by the airline. “In order to avoid further delays which would have resulted in missed connections and severe inconvenience for other customers on board, this decision was unavoidable.”
She said Janos Soltesz plans to pursue a lawsuit against the three airlines that denied his wife passage home, where she desperately needed medical treatment.
Apparently there are no hospitals in Hungary and the gluttonous eating habits of the deceased had nothing to do with her health problems. Right. The airlines definitely killed this woman.
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