Southwest, Park Forest Man Play The Feud

By Marcus Gilmer in Miscellaneous on Sep 8, 2009 4:40PM

It's a story that we hear about every few months: an airline declares a passenger too fat to fly. The latest example happened to a Park Forest man who was prevented from flying home on his booked Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Midway, though he had flown from Midway to Las Vegas without incident. Said Emery Orto, who is 6-foot, 350-pounds, "They gave us the impression I was too big or too fat to fly...It was just absolutely humiliating and embarrassing." But Southwest insists it was Orto's anger over the original incident, not his weight, that led to him being removed from the flight. According to CBS 2:

Southwest says its policy has been in place for years and that Orto was arguing with an elevated voice in a belligerent tone. The airline also says that at least four passengers said they weren't comfortable flying after watching Orto lose his temper.

Southwest says in the end it was the anger issue that ultimately eclipsed the weight issue that led to Orto being barred from the plane.

They also claimed allowing Orto to originally fly from Midway to Las Vegas was a "mistake." CBS 2 has more.