ozbeachbabe
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2009
- Posts
- 6,459
I cannot believe how some people risk the lives of either themselves or their loved ones by deliberately failing to disclose medical conditions that would require medical clearance prior to them being deemed fit to fly.
An elderly QLD couple who flew from a regional port to BNE for medical treatment for the woman were cleared for travel on the proviso that they must travel with their own C size oxygen inflight which they duly did on the way down (the regional carrier does not provide oxy it must be supplied by pax).
They turn up at BNE Airport for their flight home with the C size oxy cylinder asking if they can check it in because it's empty. When told they were only approved to travel if they had their sufficient oxygen for the flight they tried to absolve themselves of any responsibility with statements like "well she didn't need oxygen on the flight down", "well how are we supposed to arrange it, we came straight from the motel this morning & we don't have a car", "look, my wife just wants to go home" etc.
It was clearly an effort for the woman who was also in a wheelchair to even speak without exerting herself & by her own admission was on oxygen because she'd had a lung removed.
Despite the efforts by the airline to contact ground engineers (who can't refill pax oxy bottles), RFDS, Airport firies & other organisations on behalf of the pax, nobody could assist with refilling the oxy bottle & the end result was they had to go back to the hospital.
The piece de resistance was when the woman angrily said "so you're refusing to uplift me then, I'll be speaking to a solicitor about this". As if this wasn't enough her husband said "I should have just lied & not told you". This is his wife's life we're talking about here.
Given the circumstances, it is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility that this woman could have died inflight had she needed oxygen and not had it.
It also makes me wonder how many other cases out there were someone has died on a flight or become ill requiring the flight to divert enroute, is a result of non-disclosure of a medical condition.
An elderly QLD couple who flew from a regional port to BNE for medical treatment for the woman were cleared for travel on the proviso that they must travel with their own C size oxygen inflight which they duly did on the way down (the regional carrier does not provide oxy it must be supplied by pax).
They turn up at BNE Airport for their flight home with the C size oxy cylinder asking if they can check it in because it's empty. When told they were only approved to travel if they had their sufficient oxygen for the flight they tried to absolve themselves of any responsibility with statements like "well she didn't need oxygen on the flight down", "well how are we supposed to arrange it, we came straight from the motel this morning & we don't have a car", "look, my wife just wants to go home" etc.
It was clearly an effort for the woman who was also in a wheelchair to even speak without exerting herself & by her own admission was on oxygen because she'd had a lung removed.
Despite the efforts by the airline to contact ground engineers (who can't refill pax oxy bottles), RFDS, Airport firies & other organisations on behalf of the pax, nobody could assist with refilling the oxy bottle & the end result was they had to go back to the hospital.
The piece de resistance was when the woman angrily said "so you're refusing to uplift me then, I'll be speaking to a solicitor about this". As if this wasn't enough her husband said "I should have just lied & not told you". This is his wife's life we're talking about here.
Given the circumstances, it is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility that this woman could have died inflight had she needed oxygen and not had it.
It also makes me wonder how many other cases out there were someone has died on a flight or become ill requiring the flight to divert enroute, is a result of non-disclosure of a medical condition.
Last edited:
to win an argument about whether or not you can fly with an intact full cast (Answer: yes, as long as the injury is more than 3-5days old, depending on airline, otherwise the cast needs splitting). 
