Airline officials have more than terrorists to worry about when they fly a mixture of passengers into the wild blue yonder.
While most attention is fixed directly towards the potential for terrorism, there’s other factors that could have a detrimental result on a safe trip between here and there.
Nuts are also a threat to passenger safety, such a threat to some that Air Canada is agreeable to creating a “nut-free” buffer zone between passengers with extreme allergies to nuts and passengers who might be consuming nut products as part of their carry-on lunches.
With advance notification by the allergic traveller, seats in front, behind and adjacent will be declared nut-free and passengers in those seats will be “invited” to refrain from consuming nut products during the flight.
Sounds simple enough, but what if nut lovers don’t accept the “invitation” to refrain? Will they be moved to other seats or taken in handcuffs from the aircraft? Or better yet, will they be forced to eat two packages of the airline’s stale pretzels or chocolate chip cookies?
But wait, there’s more. Because some passengers have allergies to pet hair and dander, small pets, especially cats, might also need to find alternate means of travel away from inside the passenger cabin. The other option from the Canadian Transportation Agency is for airlines to provide appropriate accommodation for the allergic passengers. Does this mean a “pet-free” buffer will also be established on advance notification?
While acknowledging the seriousness of the allergies, one can’t help but be amused by the concept of all these free-from-something buffer zones.
Will there soon be zones requested that would isolate certain passengers from snorers, gas-passers, crying children and talk-a-holics?
Have a safe and free-from-something trip.
