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485-Pound Woman Waits Six Months to Fly Home

Posted on Jun 23rd 2010 3:00PM by Martha Edwards

Filed Under: Diet & Weight Loss

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After losing her family in the Haiti earthquake, 485-pound Dominique Lanoise, an American citizen, spent six long months trying to find her way back home to Miami and her seven children. Commercial airlines in the area allegedly refused to fly her internationally, so ultimately, the Dominican Air Force brought her home.

Lanoise first traveled to Haiti last November aboard a private plane to tend to her ill mother. After the earthquake hit in January, killing her family there and injuring Lanoise herself, she was taken to the Dominican Republic, where she's spent the past several months waiting -- in a makeshift tent, no less, because she was too big to fit through the door of her temporary home -- to get back to Miami. Even sadder, it was the death of her five-year-old daughter in Miami earlier this month that finally helped secure her a journey home.

She arrived safe and sound last Thursday. "I am so happy to be here," 38-year-old Lanoise told NBC Miami. "I want to thank the president of the Dominican Republic and everybody for treating me so nice. I've caused enough problems."

Lanoise isn't the only person being refused a seat on a plane. Earlier this week, 450-pound British man Sandy Russell was refused a seat on a cross-Atlantic flight that he was taking to see his dying aunt in her final days. The aunt passed away, and Russell is still grounded.

Flying isn't exactly a basic human right, but with air travel being so essential these days, is it fair for an airline to flat-out deny someone the opportunity to travel? In Lanoise's case, it's unclear how she managed to fly one way but not the other, and why she couldn't take the same private airline home. For commercial airlines, there aren't any official standards on personal body weight when it comes to international travel; however, airlines in the United States have a policy requiring overweight and obese passengers who need more than one seat to purchase two. It's not clear if Lanoise was offered this option or not; Russell was but couldn't afford it.

While the situation is extremely sad, it shows examples of people letting their health spiral out of control until the point that it inhibits them from not just the small joys, like running around with their children, but also critical moments, like saying goodbye to a loved one.

Should everyone have the right to fly, particularly when it comes to matters of life and death? Or should critically obese people be grounded?

The airlines aren't just denying flights to the morbidly obese -- actor Kevin Smith was also told he was too fat to fly.

4 Comment

Tags: airplane, dominican republic, Dominique Lanoise, earthquake, flight, flying, haiti, kevin smith, miami

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

heykimpham 6-23-2010 @ 8:36PM

Everyone should have the right to fly.

MEg 6-24-2010 @ 12:18AM

Yes, they should ABSOLUTELY have the right to fly on any plane, any time, any where and WITHOUT being charged double. Size discrimination is FAR more prevalent than any other form of discrimination because somewhere along the evolution of humanity it became acceptable to make fun of fat people. Yes, there is a genuine, empirically proven obesity epidemic, but our society's excesses made it possible. I saw a great Luann cartoon years ago that summed up the reason for the obesity epidemic PERFECTLY (and I'm paraphrasing here because I can't remember the exact wording): It's not cheap to be skinny. Think about how much you paid for your running shoes, your gym clothes, and all that organic food you insist on eating. Think someone living at or below the poverty line can afford $5 for a quart of soy milk or $3.50 for a frozen organic burrito? NO! That same $8.50 can buy them enough high carb, high fat, low nutritional value macaroni and hot dogs to feed their kids and themselves for 3 or 4 meals. THE DIET AND FITNESS INDUSTRY IS A RACKET JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE THAT SEEKS TO EXPLOIT HUMAN GUILT AND WEAKNESS! Make all healthy food CHEAP and tax the hell out of fast food and I GUARANTEE that obesity will start to improve as people have better access to nutritious food that will actually feed their families. Sell good quality athletic clothes CHEAP (not the shoes that fall apart in a month or fabrics so thin they shred in a few weeks) and I GUARANTEE more people will start to exercise more because they can FINALLY do it comfortably. AND FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND PURE IN THE WORLD, STOP MAKING FUN OF FAT PEOPLE!!! Put yourself in their shoes for ONE DAY and you will see how much pain you put them through each and every time you make a snide remark, snicker under your breath as they pass, pick the skinny kid for your softball team, hire the thin woman who's less qualified, or MAKE THEM BUY TWO AIRLINE SEATS IN LIFE AND DEATH EMERGENCY SITUATIONS OR ANY OTHERS!!!! How can people be so CRUEL to one another over something that SOCIETY CREATED?!?!?!?

DR 6-25-2010 @ 11:02AM

Whine, whine, whine. Tax this, make that cheap, let the nanny state soothe away all your fat little worries.

It doesn't cost a dime to walk or run. I walk 3 miles every morning and, guess what? Free. I ride 10 miles every evening. I admit, I paid $160 for my bike, but it is just a Wal-Mart mountain bike. Nothing fancy.

I don't buy organic foods. I buy chicken breasts on sale and keep them in the freezer until needed. I buy big bags of white rice. I get green vegetables fresh or canned.I spend far less on groceries today than I did back when I ate garbage and junk food. I bake my own whole grain bread. If a 38 year old bachelor can do it, anybody can do it.

If you whine about the cost of "organic food" or the "diet and fitness industry," then you are just making excuses. You need to make choices in the grocery store and make choices to get your wide-spreading butt off of your sofa.

It is all about choices and personal responsibility. You can cry out for the nanny state to save you but it can't work miracles.

kim 6-28-2010 @ 10:44AM

Sorry...but flying is not a right. Airlines are private companies and they have the right to sell tickets as they see fit. If they decide not to sell something to someone due to weight issues (which don't forget - planes CAN have difficulty flying if they are over weight limits) then they have the right. And it's not size discrimination if it is a valid safety concern. It's also not size discrimination if my hips and thighs extend into the seat next to me, which someone else paid hundreds of dollars for.

And before someone calls me out, I'm actually not a skinny person, I have at least 50 lbs left to lose to get to a weight that is healthy for my height. I got a new job this yer where I fly a lot, about 1x a month for work. And I've been terrified that one day I will get called out for being too overweight. My hips do intrude on the person next to me and I always buy an aisle seat so I can only inconvenience one person and try to be more comfortable. Of course, after losing about 25 lbs so far, it's less of a concern, but I was there and scared and embarrassed. But if someone did say I had to buy two seats, then I'd buy them and move on.

We need to STOP being PC around obesity issues in America. It's not a right to be accommodated when you are 100, 200, and in this woman's case, possibly 300 lbs overweight. It's just not.