A Frenchman deemed too fat to fly has finally secured a plane ticket back to Europe after an alternate plan to return by ship fell through, his father said on Monday.
Kevin Chenais — who has a hormone imbalance and came to the US for treatment — was due to take an evening Virgin flight from New York to London with his parents, Rene Chenais said.
LONDON STOP
Photo: AFP
However, Rene Chenais said he was not sure how the family would proceed after they arrived in London.
It is the latest development in a saga that began last month when British Airways determined the 22-year-old, who weighs 230kg, was too heavy to have on board.
The family subsequently spent a week in a Chicago airport hotel trying to resolve the matter and, running out of money, decided their only option was to take a train to New York and cross the Atlantic on the Queen Mary cruise ship.
However, the Queen Mary “also didn’t want to board Kevin, citing health security reasons,” the elder Chenais said in a telephone interview on the way to the airport from a Brooklyn hotel.
British Airways said that its customer service team “worked diligently to find a solution.”
However, according to a spokeswoman, it was “not possible to safely accommodate the customer on any of our aircraft.”
US TREATMENT
Kevin Chenais — who requires round-the-clock oxygen and medical attention — came to the US from France in May last year for treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
His health problems, which have prevented him from living a normal life, began when he was just six months old, his father said.
Despite all the “setbacks,” Rene Chenais said his son — who had looked forward to taking the Queen Mary — was “a little sad” to be leaving the US.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was