A320 captain reported concern about a passenger of size sitting in the emergency exit row who had ac...

Narrative:

This happened a few weeks ago and has been bothering me ever since. Just prior to push my lead flight attendant came up and said she was uncomfortable with a very large passenger seated in the exit row. He said he was 'willing and able' to assist in an evacuate/evacuation. However in the flight attendant's professional opinion this person was so large she questioned whether he was really 'able' to assist and asked if he could be moved. I contacted operations and a cs supervisor came down and said we cannot move passenger if they say 'willing and able.' I next contacted the [chief pilot]; he said he had not had this before and put me on hold to get the company opinion. After a bit he came back and said we could not move this person just for being large. We departed. On arrival I saw this passenger deplaning; in my estimation he was between 500-600 lbs. He had to come down the aisle sideways to fit between the seats; stopping to catch his breath every few seats. In my professional opinion there was no way he should have been given an exit row seat. There is legal and then there is common sense safety. For future reference where do we draw the line on someone so large it may cause issues were there to be an evacuation. This evaluation of 'able' to assist should be addressed at the gate prior to boarding the aircraft.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 Captain reported concern about a passenger of size sitting in the emergency exit row who had accepted being willing and able to assist in an emergency.

Narrative: This happened a few weeks ago and has been bothering me ever since. Just prior to push my lead Flight Attendant came up and said she was uncomfortable with a very large passenger seated in the exit row. He said he was 'willing and able' to assist in an EVAC. However in the FA'S professional opinion this person was so large she questioned whether he was really 'able' to assist and asked if he could be moved. I contacted OPS and a CS Supervisor came down and said we cannot move passenger if they say 'willing and able.' I next contacted the [Chief Pilot]; he said he had not had this before and put me on hold to get the company opinion. After a bit he came back and said we could not move this person just for being large. We departed. On arrival I saw this passenger deplaning; in my estimation he was between 500-600 lbs. He had to come down the aisle sideways to fit between the seats; stopping to catch his breath every few seats. In my professional opinion there was no way he should have been given an exit row seat. There is legal and then there is common sense safety. For future reference where do we draw the line on someone so large it may cause issues were there to be an evacuation. This evaluation of 'able' to assist should be addressed at the gate prior to boarding the aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1648287
Time
Date	201904
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 135
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown

A320 captain reported concern about a passenger of size sitting in the emergency exit row who had accepted being willing and able to assist in an emergency.