Emergency Exits on the Plane
I returned recently from a workshop in Vienna, and one of the attendees was telling me about having been placed on one of the exit/emergency rows right at the front of the plane, but in the middle seat. The actual seat next to the emergency exit had been given to a Chinese gent. Halfway into the flight, when they started bringing the meals around, this person I was talking to had unfolded his stowaway table, which, due to them being in the first row, was in the armrest. The Chinese guy then, looking around for something to unfold or hit to get at his table, reaches for the lever of the emergency exit! Both the flight attendant and this guy who told me this had then lunged at him, to stop him.
Very surprising that they’d just put someone beside the emergency exit without checking to make sure that he/she is in fact capable of attending properly to the exit. On the flight back, I was also placed on the window seat next to the emergency exit without being told so at check-in, but at least the flight-attendent then came by and checked to make sure I was aware of what is required.
