Tight Fit - with additional comments

I had to fly out to New Mexico again, and I had this huge guy sit next to me in an Embraer EMB145 plane. (Kim, the seats are definitely too small...) He tried to fold up the armrest before sitting down in order to take up as much room as possible, but I quickly put the armrest down as he came crashing down into his seat.

Well after getting squished against the window, you know I just had to take pictures of one of the most uncomfortable plane flights I have ever been on.

Out of a sense of courtesy, I obscured his face in this shot. You can see how up close and personal he is getting with my shoulder & arm as he is sleeping. Even with the armrest down, he kind of 'oozed' above it and somehow occupied about 1/2 of my seat with the width of what was between his arms and his waist.

The amazing thing is, the steward had to give him a seatbelt extender because the original one wasn't long enough to go around him. After he put the extender on, you can see that the belt is pulled all the way up to it's limit and barely fits. Look how close he is to the seat in front of him too.

Here he is pressed up against my hip because he kicked off his shoes and spead his legs wide. One bare foot (no socks) was in the aisle and the other was playing footsie with mine under the seat directly in front of me. Believe me, my back was killing me because I was twisted sideways on one butt-cheek as I was trying to keep from being smooshed by this guy...

The worst part was when he stood up to stretch about midway through the flight and the effect of 'popping' himself out of the seat pulled his pants off to about mid-thigh and his underwear dropped down his backside enough to show a pair of half-moons. Sheesh! Wonderful...

Well, gotta go, lots to do out here.

EDIT-EDIT-EDIT-EDIT-EDIT

I received a comment from someone named 'anonymous' last night about this post, and I feel that I must articulate my point a little bit better.

The issue I have with this epoisode, is when people of extremely large size (I don't mean 'pleasantly plump', or 'carrying a few extra pounds' when I say extremely large) require that we have to put up with it or shut up.

It is quite probable that he was uncomfortable sitting in the aircraft seat, because he did heave himself around in the seat quite a bit during the whole flight. The poor elderly lady (whom was brought on and off the plane in a wheelchair) that was seated in front of him was very aware of his strenuous shifting because he would grab ahold of the top of her seat and use it as a leverage point, thereby jostling her mightly as he did so. Several times, she gave out a 'yip' like a kicked puppy during these gyrations.

The point is his stature is too ungainly for wedging himself into a plane seat of such small size. He really should have a larger seat such as would be available in First Class seating. The typical riposte to a statement such as this is that it is unfair to expect him to have to pay more for the bigger seat in First Class, but I must remind you that were you to ship something via UPS or Fedex, the amount you pay is based upon its weight or sometimes the actual physical size of the item (oversize package charges). This is because there are special handling considerations when the object to be transported is heavier or larger than what the route drivers can normally handle on their trucks. If the package is of a substantial size, a second delivery employee will have to ride along to help unload the package at its point of delivery, thereby incurring more costs to the shipper.

This air traveler situation does require additional steps beyond the simple buying of a ticket, then jamming yourself into a space that can't possibly contain you. It reminds me of the time a woman was at the Fair and stood in line to get on one of the rides. When it was her turn to get into the contraption, the ride attendant could not get the safety lap bar to close over her sumptuous girth. He tried about three or four times and finally had to give up and ask her to depart from the ride. She then proceeded to yell and scream at him like it was his fault that she didn't fit into the machine. He explained that he couldn't get it to close and latch, and couldn't engage the safety interlock, which when engaged, would allow the machine to begin moving. But she would have none of that, yelling that he just didn't want a fat woman on his ride. The poor guy was just facing the reality of the situation and everybody could see that it was physically impossible for him to close the lap bar without causing her serious injury and (very likely) a lawsuit.

There is no easy answer here. Just like the ride attendant, I was trapped. As such, I had to twist around in the seat (that I paid for just like this big guy did) and press myself against the window while remaining relatively motionless for 2 1/2 hours during the flight because there was no room to do otherwise. The end result is that I have a kink, or some such name for a sharp pain in the right side of my neck and now I have to turn my whole body just to look left and right as I am driving because my neck is so stiff. I do understand the difficulties he has to experience daily in his life, as I have seen others at work and in my daily dealings with people do. The problem is, he was not properly suited to fly in such a small commuter airplane and as such, punished me for it.

That's where this tirade came from.