British Airways First Class Passenger Gets Wedged Into Seat And Has to be Hoisted Out in Three Hour Long Operation

An overweight British Airways passenger who was sitting in the most covetable seat onboard reportedly got wedged stuck for three hours after landing and eventually had to be hoisted out of his First Class suite, according to internal engineering documents that were leaked to The Sun.

The embarrassing incident occurred on Saturday morning shortly after British Airways flight BA74 had landed from Lagos, the financial capital of Nigeria, with emergency services needing to be called to help free the passenger.

According to the flight tracking website Flight Radar 24, the Boeing 777-300 aircraft landed at London Heathrow a few minutes late, but the passenger, who had been sat in First Class seat 1A, wasn’t able to make up any lost time after he discovered that he couldn’t actually get out of the seat.

The cabin crew reportedly tried to free the man, but their efforts were in vain, and BA’s engineering team had to be called in to help devise a solution with the help of emergency first responders.

“A volumetric passenger is stuck in seat 1A,” read the leaked engineering note. “The plan is to remove the suite door and use a hoist to eject [him] from the seat.”

The aircraft featured BA’s latest First Class suite, which is similar to the seat on its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleet but with the addition of a double sliding door for added privacy.

While sliding privacy doors are undoubtedly a popular and sought-after addition to new First and Business Class seats, passenger experience experts have raised concerns about how these doors and tall seat shrouds make them less accessible to customers with reduced mobility.