January 18, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 14, 1423

TAIPEI, Jan 17: An overweight Taiwanese woman is seeking an apology and damages from Hong Kong’s DragonAir airline after she was refused a seat on a flight because of her weight, the Consumers’ Foundation said on Friday.

“DragonAir’s refusal has hurt her dignity and emotions. We will help her seek an apology and damages,” the foundation’s chairman Tsai Tzai-pen told a news conference.

“It’s hard to understand, because international airlines would not refuse to fly large-sized people like sumo wrestlers or body- builders,” he said.

While the foundation did not reveal the woman’s name, it said she is 150 centimetres tall and weighs 180 kilos.

DrangonAir’s Taiwan office argued that DrangonAir refused to fly the woman out of concern for her safety and that of other passengers.

The woman’s waistline measures 150 centimetres, greater than the 136-centimetre width of the Airbus plane’s seat and safety belt, said DragonAir’s Taiwan promotion manager Chang Tse-kai.

“We were worried that the seat belt would break during crash- landing or air turbulence, and she could jam the emergency exit in case of an emergency,” Chang said.

But the woman told the Consumers’ Foundation that DragonAir staff said more humiliating things to her and complained to the foundation after failing to get an apology.

The woman booked a ticket through a travel agency to fly from Taipei to Hong Kong on DrangonAir last November. She claims that when she was sold the ticket, the travel agency said there was no problem about her weight and, only the day before her departure, the travel agency told her DragonAir would not allow her to fly because of her weight.

Even though the woman said she would be willing to pay more money or buy another ticket, DragonAir refused and she flew to Hong Kong on Taiwan’s China Airlines.—dpa