Airplane Passengers Forced to Stand in Aisle for Five-Hour Flight
Six passengers on a Russian airline were forced to stand in the aisles for their entire flight after the wrong airplane—one with too few seats—showed up at the airport. And no, it wasn't Southwest.
No—it was Tatarstan Airlines! The name that for 17 years has been synonymous with, I guess, air travel around the Russian Federation's Republic of Tatarstan is now synonymous with something else: Callous disregard for passenger safety!
The six passengers in question were members of a tour group booked for a flight between Antalya, Turkey and Ekaterinburg, Russia on a 148-seat Boeing 737. When a 142-seat 737 showed up at the gate, they were given a choice: Wait seven hours for the next plane, or spend the whole flight standing up. The whole five-hour flight. Those saddle seats don't seem so bad now, do they?
When the plane hit turbulence, the standing-room passengers sat on the floor, where at least they had some leg room. The tour company offered them $200 in compensation, but they're asking for $4,700, which seems low. On the other hand: Standing for five hours can only be marginally less comfortable than sitting in an airplane seat for the same amount of time.
The CEO of budget airline RyanAir hasn't commented, probably because he's too busy drooling at the thought of doing this on his own planes. And, for your edification, here is Tatarstan Airlines' awesome logo: