Blind Man Ejected From Plane, Passengers Protest

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A US Airways Express flight from Philadelphia to Long Island was canceled yesterday evening after passengers staged a protest against the crew's ejection of a blind man over a dispute concerning his guide dog.

According to ABC Action News, Albert Rizzi was told to keep his dog under the seat in front of him for the duration of the flight, per airline regulations.

Rizzi says that, after the plane was delayed on the tarmac for over an hour, Doxy got restless, and "curled up under his legs."

US Airways claims Rizzi "became disruptive and refused to comply" when a flight attendant asked "to secure his service dog at his feet," which resulted in the plane returning to the gate and Rizzi being removed.

But passenger Frank Ohlhorst remembers it differently.

"When we, the passengers, realized what was going on, we were, like, 'Why is this happening? He's not a problem. What is going on?'" he told ABC 6. "And we all kind of raised our voices and said, 'This is a real problem.' The captain came out of the cockpit and he basically asked us all to leave the aircraft."

US Airways subsequently canceled the entire flight and offered to bus passengers from Philadelphia to Islip, New York — a 3.5 hour drive away.

Rizzi, who accepted the offer, said he was "humbled" by the reaction of passengers who elected to join him.

"They could have stayed on the plane, but they chose not to," he said.

Kinda messed up to kick a blind man off a flight because his dog wanted to be next to him.

 

[mongoose-mania]

Wow. That's... yeah.

 

[charl_huntress]

I think he should sue them. As the owner of the service dog, he does have a responsibility to keep the animal in check, but if they are sitting there for an hour your not going to stop a passenger from stretching their legs. Give the damn dog the same courtesy

Yet, I'm more confused with how he was even supposed to secure that dog under the seat. It looks like a Lab in the picture. I can't really tell though.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Ya that part confused me to, I guess the mean that the dog is supposed to sit under his legs or something? But even a well trained dog is still a dog and they need to move around a little bit here and there unless they are asleep.

 

[Wolfwood]

That's awesome to see people come to his defense. I would've been pretty pissed about having my flight delayed, but that would've been directed at the flight crew's decision and not the blind man.

 

[charl_huntress]

Ya that part confused me to, I guess the mean that the dog is supposed to sit under his legs or something? But even a well trained dog is still a dog and they need to move around a little bit here and there unless they are asleep.

Possible that would obstruct his ability for egress if there was an emergence. Hmmm...I have a service dog because I got it like that and I have to buy an additional seat for him. He has to have a small dog. I can't see that dog being secured in the little cargo area where I normally put my purse...weird they would even require him to go there. Just weird. I'll make sure to not recommend this airline as service-owner friendly.