Photo: TikTok
Many people are siding with him in this situation, even the flight attendant!
By Ethan Cotler — Written on Mar 26, 2023
Flying can be uncomfortable: trying to rest in those uncomfortable seats, claiming the middle armrest and the random periods of turbulence. Horror stories spring up all the time of enraged passengers fighting with each other over minute things. Sometimes it’s difficult to determine who is correct in those situations.
On one flight to Charlotte, a man and a woman got into a dispute, and now people are arguing about who is right.
He repeatedly shook her seat after she refused to stop reclining it so he could enjoy his meal.
On the flight which departed from New Orleans, the woman in the video recorded the interaction, which A&E TV posted on the video-sharing app TikTok. The passenger behind her was shaking her seat before she started recording. At the start of the video, she asked him the obvious question of why he was doing it.
“I asked you politely if you would mind not disturbing my meal while I’m trying to eat…and you decided to push [your seat] right back in the middle,” he said. “It’s quite a[n] ignorant thing to do. What’s your problem?”
“I don’t have one,” she said. He responded by hitting the top of her seat repeatedly. A&E TV explained that the woman claimed she needed the seat reclined for an unspecified medical reason. However, her claim didn’t phase the passenger behind her. As she continued to keep her seat reclined, he hit. But it seems like the slaps are not enough for him. The passenger balled up his fists and used them to shake her seat by punching it.
The punches slowed down at times and sped up at others. But he did not relent one second. He continued shaking her seat for a total of six minutes! So, she decided to alert a flight attendant. “The man behind me is continuously, purposefully banging into my seat,” she said.
However, A&E TV shared that the flight attendant did not take the woman’s side. Instead, the woman was given a disturbance notice. In the video’s caption, they ask, “Whose side are you on?”
People in the comments are mixed in who they support.
Most people in the comments sided with the man in this situation. Many argue that being packed tightly into your seat by the passenger in front of you is an extremely unpleasant experience.
“I’ve been up against a wall like that with the person in front of me reclined, it was an anxiety-ridden 4-hour flight of hell,” one person commented. Another person pointed out that he was in the last row on the plane, which meant he had no space to recline his seat back. “Looks like he’s in the end row so he really has no room,” they wrote.
Other people took the side of the woman. Because, after all, there is no rule that you can’t recline your seat. “If the seat reclines, she can recline. I’m very confused why she got the notice!” one person wrote.
“Anyone who reclines on an airplane are a--holes period but they have the right to be an a--holes, unfortunately,” another added. Others felt that both parties mishandled the situation. People argued that she should have been more mindful of reclining her seat, and he should not have responded aggressively.
Regardless of whose side you’re on, if everyone treated their fellow passengers as respectfully as they could, flights would be a bit less miserable moving forward.
Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. He writes on entertainment and news.