To think the male American Airlines passenger punching the reclined seat should be charged with assault if legally possible.

[SiousieSoo]

I have watched the video of the man continually punching the seat occupied by Wendi Williams who had positioned it to recline. I am totally appalled that she was not given assistance when she drew the flight attendants attention to her predicament. This mans behaviour was totally unacceptable. I find it hard to fathom his behaviour and really feel a bit disturbed by it. I don't think he would have acted this way had it been a man in front... Am I being unfair in thinking this?

He didn't behave well, but her reclining her seat, particularly as he was unable to recline his, exemplified a horrible sense of entitlement and lack of consideration on her part.

Oh course he did @category12 🙄 she did t even manage to get one "hard punch" on camera.

Placemarking until I can watch the video.

I fly long haul annually and I don't recline. I'm tall but seem to manage without. One flight though the two women sitting in front of us reclined as soon as we were airborne
Fine, their prerogative. But they had the extra legroom seats anyway so had more than enough room. Pissed me right off for the whole 12 hours.

I am in the process of booking for this sumer and am so tempted to splash out for the front seats for this reason alone.

Oh come on, it is possible that he did. You don't tend to start filming before anything happens, do you?! And logical that he would reduce levels when he was aware she had her phone out.

I'm not supporting her behaviour, but he could have punched the seat beforehand. Or possibly it felt like punches, given she wouldn't have seen it either.

Why all the angst about reclining seats? Surely if you recline your seat the person behind you reclines theirs and that person then has the same amount of space as before. Any planes I've been on recently even the last row of seats reclines so what is the problem. Seats go up for meals and back down again after.

Jet2 are good, their seats are set at a good angle and don't recline but are comfortable.

Because, christmassausages, he was in a seat that couldn't recline. So she was radically reducing his space and he had no way to improve it for himself.

What on earth has happened to us all that we resort to bashing and wobbling a seat rather than talk?
Sit and be wobbled rather than turn round and say “is there a problem?”
Rush for lawyers and police and airlines to negotiate over petty annoyances?

YABU
No need to criminalise what was petty behaviour between both people. If he can be charged with assault for pushing her seat, then she could likewise be charged with assault for pushing her seat into him.

he was in a seat that couldn't recline. So she was radically reducing his space and he had no way to improve it for himself.

That is not her problem. He was behaving aggressively and as people pointed out, if the woman had been a 6ft man, or any size of a man, he wouldn't have behaved the way he did.

He did talk to her and she ignored him.

That is not her problem.

What about being kind and considerate of others?

All these people saying he wouldnt have done it to a man - the very second post someone says this happened to her husband.

He’s a dick, she’s inconsiderate.

She doesn’t have an injury from it and people should stop suing each other and trying to criminalise petty shit. Compo mentality is the worst.

I can’t believe so many people think his behaviour was acceptable.

If this is ok what about the next time I am on the train and I am crammed in next to someone wearing a strong over powering perfume that I don’t like. Is it ok for me then to tip my bottle of water over them?

Since when is aggressive behaviour ever acceptable?

@Dontsweatthelittlestuff was she not aggressive by reclining her seat so that he couldn't put his test down? She started the aggression. He asked her not to, but she did it all the same. Why?

I think in all the coverage of this Ive seen ONE comment along the lines of airlines are greedy and should remove the back row. Ive been on the back row once and it is really uncomfortable when the person in front reclines and you have nowhere to go.
I think they should keep them but just sell the tickets for cheaper and make sure that people know what they're getting. I would be more than happy to pay less for the back row on a short haul flight.

I have no problem with people reclining in front of me as long as the seats are upright for meal service times on medium and long haul flights. Otherwise, straight after take off- no problem at all, that's what the seats are intended to do.

On a 2 hour flight why do you need to sleep? Would piss me right off.
There is little enough room as it is

Why couldn’t she sit upright. If she wasn’t going to get any sleep anyway and sounds like she spent the 2 hours trying to get the attendants attention or being bounced then why did she insist on keeping her seat reclined

Would have probably done the same in the circumstances. Very entitled on her part.

If she does have whiplash then she must take some responsibility

It is not aggressive to recline a reclining seat that she had paid to use.

In fact she did raise the seat when he requested her to so that he could eat then reclined again once his snack was finished. The video shows the man with his tray down and using it as a table for his phone and at the start of the video you see him finish a drink so he clearly still has room to use the facilities that he has paid for.

His argument is with the airline for selling him a back row seat that doesn’t recline or for having other seats that do recline. But rather than take it up with the airline who are the ones responsible he is happily bullying the woman in front.

@Oliversmumsarmy as I have stated up thread there are literally about 10 reasons I can think of that warrants someone needing sleep on a 2 hour flight!! How can you be so short sighted??!!

On a 2 hour flight why do you need to sleep? On a 2 hour flight why do you need to eat? It's a lot easier just to eat before or after boarding than it is to sleep at the airport. There are many reasons you may need to get a couple of hours sleep.

But she didn’t sleep

@Oliversmumsarmy...SHE didn’t...but plenty of ppl need sleep (and do sleep) on 2 hour flights!!

Why all the angst about reclining seats? Surely if you recline your seat the person behind you reclines theirs and that person then has the same amount of space as before

Some fucker did this to me, and even though my seat could recline I chose to only recline it slightly so the person behind me wouldn’t be inconvenienced.

In any case, I couldn’t even put my tray table down fully and reclining wouldn’t have helped that. He only once put it up (slightly) when the flight attendant asked him to, but it was right back down when the trays were collected. And yes, I did ask politely but he refused. Luckily it didn’t have much turbulence so I could have my drinks whilst standing in the aisle.

You should have a reasonable awareness of where your seat ends up; otherwise airlines will start reducing this capacity in economy completely and you won’t be able to recline all the way when the seat is empty!

And I totally kneed the chair during the flight and violently rocked it when I got up and down. He wouldn’t comply with a polite request and as I said, the least of what that arsehole deserved.

He shouldn't have done it but then reclining seats are an abomination in economy and should be banned imo.

So she didn't sleep and therefore didn't need to reclined her chair.
Despite the internet being littered with versions of be kind of seems people still rush to defend someone's selfish actions.
He did ask her not to reclined and it's really strange that he was hitting her chair really hard but in the film he wasn't!