A friend sent me a hot-off-the-presses article about deaf people who aren’t allowed to fly solo. That’s the apparent policy of the Australian subsidiary of Singapore-based budget air carrier Tiger Airways.

Deaf passengers who want to fly on the airline must be accompanied by a fare-paying adult care provider, according to Jinky, a Tiger Airways reservations agent. This claim was contradicted by Matt Hobbs, who denied that such a policy existed, and could not fathom why the crews and call center staff were informing passengers of this purported requirement.

Bill Shorten, Australia’s parliamentary secretary for disabilities and children’s services, made a great analogy of the ridiculousness of the situation. Shorten pointed out that Ludwig van Beethoven, a famous music composer who lost his hearing, would be a shining example of a deaf passenger wrongly denied the right to fly alone–if he was still living. Ditto for other famous deaf people such as Marlee Matlin, I. King Jordan, Helen Keller, Laurent Clerc, and Andrew Foster, to name a few.

“Under this, Beethoven would never have been able to catch a plane” on his own, Shorten told a television station. “Just because people are deaf doesn’t mean that they’re stupid.”

Shorten is right, not all deaf people are stupid. Just like not all stupid people are deaf. Check the hearing level of that clueless coworker or friend sitting across from you, if you don’t believe me. There are other factors involved in being stupid. Deafness isn’t one of them.

Regardless, in respect to flying, you don’t need the ability to hear to board a plane. You don’t need to hear to be able to find your seat. That involves a little something called “being able to read.” You don’t need to hear to look out the window and see the plane taking a nosedive. All of the above actions don’t involve the ears, period.

So why would a deaf passenger need a hearing companion in order to fly? Perhaps to inform him/her that the seat-mate in front snores like a Saint Bernard dog? And just who is supposed to foot the bill for this so-called care provider? If it’s the deaf person, that’s a double hit to the wallet. Two for the price of one is usually a good bargain, but in this case, it’s kind of the reverse.

Of course, there are obvious lessons to be learned from this controversy. But to me, the most important lesson is this: do not fly with an airline that employs people going by just one name– like Jinky, the knowledgeable reservations agent. My friend quipped, “What is she, a hooker or something?”