Measurement 16 lady slams ‘fat-phobic’ airline over painfully tight seatbelt

Aug 29, 2023 at 6:12 PM
Measurement 16 lady slams ‘fat-phobic’ airline over painfully tight seatbelt

A beautician from Scotland claims she was “lassoed” into her chair by a seatbelt on a Ryanair flight, saying the airline’s standard-size belts might be seen as “fatphobic”.

Katie Higgins, 33, from Ayr in Scotland, was flying from Glasgow to go to her household in Cork.

She says she is the typical gown dimension within the UK – dimension 16, however claims there was barely an inch of room left after she clipped in her steel fasteners.

After the 33-year-old boarded the flight, she found she was in for an uncomfortable journey. She says she will not be “delusional” and is aware of she is a “bigger woman”. However, she was left feeling a little bit baffled when the belt didn’t match her, although she lately misplaced two stone in weight.

The part-time blogger shared her expertise on Facebook and claimed Ryanair’s tight seats may hurt “the self-esteem and mental health” of plus-sized passengers.

Ms Higgins mentioned: “If someone else was a different shape or a different size, they might not be able to tie it.. With other airlines, you can usually pull the length of the belt a little and try to adjust it, but there was none of that.”

MailOnline reported the 33-year-old hasn’t but contacted Ryanair in regards to the challenge as she believes that her grievance would fall on deaf ears, however as an alternative, she used social media.

Her put up has racked up greater than 400 likes, shares, and feedback on Facebook, with viewers sharing their very own experiences too.

The activist is now calling for the general public to hearken to the issues of plus-sized folks, fairly than telling them to “lose weight”.

After posting in regards to the incident on social media, Katie mentioned she was contacted by a number of plus-sized ladies who had been left feeling embarrassed after having to request a belt extender on a flight.

“There’s a lot of people who reached out and told me that they bought their own belt extender because they were afraid of the embarrassment. It’s nothing to do with the size of you – it’s to do with the size of the belt and the safety aspect of it.”

Express.co.uk has contacted Ryanair for remark.