business terms-of-service vehicle air-travel
Can an airline forcibly remove a senior citizen who is wearing a soiled adult diaper?
<p>I am curious to know if an airline has a legal right to forcibly remove a senior citizen from an airplane if it is discovered that this person is wearing a soiled adult diaper.</p>
<p>Say for example that when passengers are boarding an airplane, a person who is sitting next to a senior citizen notices a strong foul odor coming from the senior citizen. This person then walks up the aisle and reports this problem to a flight attendant.</p>
<p>Say that the flight attendant then asks the senior citizen if he/she is wearing a soiled adult diaper and senior citizen says yes, so the flight attendant instructs the senior citizen to go to the airplane bathroom to change the adult diaper.</p>
<p>Let's say that the senior citizen replies that he/she doesn't have any more adult diapers and then says that it is very important that they take this flight so they are absolutely not going to depart the airplane despite having a soiled adult diaper.</p>
<p>At this point, can the flight attendant have the senior citizen forcibly removed from the airplane?</p>
<p>As far as I know, an airline would never forcibly remove a mother and her baby from an airplane if her baby had a soiled diaper when they boarded the airplane and the mother did not have any more baby diapers. Yet, I'm not sure what an airline would do, or could do, regarding a senior citizen with a soiled adult diaper.</p>

<p>It depends on what the Contract of Carriage says. <a href="https://www.delta.com/content/dam/delta-www/pdfs/dl-dgr-master-13apr21.pdf" rel="noreferrer">Delta Airlines</a>, for US contracts, says under rule 7 that</p>
<p>Delta may refuse to transport  any passenger, and may remove any passenger from its aircraft
at any time, for any of the following reasons:...
(E) Passenger’s Conduct or Condition</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Delta  may  refuse  to  transport  any  passenger, or may remove any
passenger from its aircraft, when refusal to transport or removal  of
the passenger is reasonably  necessary in Delta’s sole discretion for
the passenger’s comfort  or safety, for the comfort or safety of other
passengers or Delta employees, or for the prevention  of  damage  to
the  property  of  Delta  or  its  passengers  or  employees</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and gives as an example</p>
<blockquote>
<ol start="8">
<li>When the passenger’s conduct, attire, hygiene or odor creates an
unreasonable risk of offense  or annoyance to other passengers.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>So yes. It is unlikely that an airline lacks any such condition, but you would have to look at all of the airlines and all of the countries where airlines operate to be absolutely positive, so I will say that that can refuse to carry the passenger. In your case, the passenger is not a Person  with  a  Disability as defined under 14 CFR 382.5 and 382.31, but you might construct a disability-related scenario that gets a different answer.</p>
