You might think this is a joke, but there’s a good safety reason behind it.
A British Airways flight was delayed earlier this week by Italian officials. The flight was headed from Milan to London.
The plane was delayed because some of the seat cushions were too thick.
True story. Videos on TikTok showcase the scene.
That might sound funny, but there’s a good rationale behind it.
A surprise inspection by Italian aviation officials found that the nearly five-year-old plane had the wrong size of seat cushion. As it turns out, the thicker cushions were in seats in the exit rows and are supposed to be thinner to allow passengers more access in the event of an emergency evacuation.
The flight was delayed by more than an hour in order to replace the seat cushions with thinner ones.
The plane was an Airbus A320neo. The thinner sea cushions might be a little harder on your butt but that is compensated by the fact that there is more leg room in the exit row. We bet you didn’t realize that little airline tidbit.
The correct seat cushions were located and replaced. But one TikTok user posted a video showing passengers on the aircraft peeling back their seat cushions as part of a desperate search to locate the missing cushions while the cabin crew read out the serial number over the public address system.
“Basically, they (British Airways) had standard seat cushions in emergency rows; they need to have short ones in case of an emergency,” the TikTok user wrote.
A dozen seat cushions needed to be found and replaced before Italian officials would let the plane fly. If not, the plane would have been declared unsafe and all passengers would have had to disembark.
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