DHAKA: A young Frenchman who was stranded in the United States because he was deemed too heavy to fly finally took a plane to Britain on Monday, one step closer to going home.

Kevin Chenais, who has a hormone imbalance and weighs 230 kilograms arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport with his parents early on Monday after Virgin agreed to fly him back from New York, gulfnews.com publishes this report on Tuesday.

Chenais, 22, had been in the United States since May 2012 for treatment. He tried to fly home with British Airways last month but the airline said he was too heavy.

The family subsequently tried to sail across the Atlantic, but the Queen Mary cruise ship also refused to have him on-board.

Arriving at Heathrow, Chenais described the flight as ‘terrible, terrible, terrible’.

‘The flight was really hard,” he told media in French as he sat on a mobility scooter at the airport, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a large US flag.

‘I didn’t stop crying for the whole flight.’

But he praised Virgin for flying him out from New York’s JFK airport and paying for the economy-class flight.

‘That was very kind of them,’ he said.

The family were met at Heathrow by French consular staff who are trying to arrange the final leg to France by Eurostar or Air France.

BDST: 2207 HRS, NOV 19, 2013
RoR/GCP