This article is more than 17 years old

This article is more than 17 years old

A holidaymaker who suffered severe internal bleeding after being squashed by an obese woman on an 11-hour flight has won £13,000 in compensation from Virgin Atlantic.

Barbara Hewson, a freelance writer from Swansea, was seated next to a passenger who was so large that she could not fit into her economy-class seat without lifting the armrest.

Mrs Hewson, who was travelling with her husband to Los Angeles, was pinned into a corner by the woman and was barely able to move during the journey. Cabin crew told her there were no alternative seats on the flight.

When the plane landed Mrs Hewson had internal bleeding in her breast, severe bruising, and torn leg muscles. She was admitted to hospital, bedridden for a month and still suffers pain, two years later.

Her husband, Roy, said: "It was a horrible experience. This woman was sitting on top of my wife. The staff on the plane treated us very badly - they couldn't have cared less."

Mrs Hewson's attempts to remonstrate with the woman were greeted with an "assertive" response. The woman was unable to use the lavatory during the flight because she could not fit through the door.

When she complained to Virgin, Mrs Hewson initially received a £15 basket of fruit from the airline. After a battle in which she threatened to sue for injury and negligence, she agreed to settle for £13,000.

Mr Hewson said airlines needed a "proper policy" on dealing with large passengers: "Obese people should take responsibility for themselves - they know perfectly well if they can't sit in a normal seat, and they should say so."

A Virgin spokesman said the airline recommended that particularly obese passengers booked two seats. But she said this was difficult to enforce, because the airline rarely saw passengers before they turned up at the airport.

Mr Hewson said: "We found out that this woman's thin husband had chosen to sit behind her. Clearly, they'd had this problem before."