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?

Why does anyone "need" to recline on a 2 hour flight?

Why shouldn't she put her seat back? It's a reclining seat so why not. Those saying she started it in the first place are incorrect, is there a rule or law forbidding it? Of course not. He was rude and aggressive.

I really don’t understand why ppl think that just because it’s a “Short flight” that ppl SHOULDN’T recline....maybe she drove all night to get to the airport and needs sleep??!!
Maybe it’s her last leg of a 20 hr journey and she....needs sleep?!!
Maybe she is on the “short flight” so that she can attend a funeral, sit at someone’s bedside, help someone in need, etc etc etc and so she wants TO SLEEP!!

I find it so weird that some ppl find it hard to think that others live different lives to them and are on a flight for Completely different reasons!! If someone wants to recline then that is their own decision, him asking her to not do it has no bearing whatsoever!!! He should have just asked to be moved and not acted like an immature TWAT!!

@category. So if she could evidence the "need" to recline his behaviour would then be regarded as unacceptable? Thankfully we don't need subjective criteria to classify behaviour as aggressive bordering on assault.

They’re both dicks

Ok i have read tons of stuff about this he asked her to put her seat up so he could eat then the minute his plate was removed she put it back down and knocked his drink over and she was laughing about it the flight attendant got him a new drink and asked her to stop filming on an aircraft as against rules she was a bit cheaper to the bloke and he was a bit of a twat but it's her own fault for being rude and laughing at him

The appropriate thing for him to do would have been to ask a flight attendant to intervene when the seat in front was reclined, not bang the seat in front. That is how a grown up behaves.

You seem to be dismissing everything the woman did and vilifying the man OP.

Why does anyone "need" to recline on a 2 hour flight?

@category12

For MANY reasons like I stated in my previous post above
And here’s a few more;

Maybe she just worked all night and then got an early flight??
Maybe like my dh she travels for work and works 12 hour shifts and then has a 3 hr drive when she gets off the plane..
Maybe she is emotionally drained due to a family emergency
Maybe she was up all night with a sick child!!

DO YOU NEED MORE??!!!

Of a bitch to the man not cheaper

No they asked her to delete the footage. She declined so they threatened her with a passenger disturbance notice. I've seen loads of filming on planes. Is it illegal really don't think so.

Nothing like a bit of victim blaming is there?

At the end of the day aeroplanes come with seats which recline. To suggest that someone is a bitch/entitled/deserving of all she got based on the fact she used the facility provided by the airline is ridiculous.

People are only having a go at her based on the fact they personally don’t like people in reclining seats in front of them. If it was something else which people do themselves because, you know, that facility is there, then the comments would be vastly different.

She was inconsiderate but totally within her rights to do this.

Sometimes one person's "rights" infringe on another person's.

Then you have to be more considerate.

Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you should.

But I agree that the airline staff should have intervened and made both of them have themselves.

seats recline except when people are eating, at takeoff and landing.

if you expect economy class air travel to be comfortable and spacious you are too stupid to travel. Put up with it. Sitting bolt upright is quite painful for some people.

from the diva-fussing over this, you would think that the seat in front went flat!

Sorry, no. He didn't assault her. Punching a seat isn't generally illegal, unless that actually damages it to a meaningful extent or combines it with other things like disobeying crew instructions. He is, however, a prize dickhead for acting as he did and the airline should be ashamed that they did nothing to help.

I expected to see someone actually punching a seat!

Yes that's annoying but totally permitted by the airline.

Just because it is permitted doesn't mean it is considerate to the person behind you, and when they have already requested nicely 10 mins before for you not to recline it is rude to then recline again.

Obviously there is no excuse for hard punching (which we haven't seen), but I have no problem with someone being as irritating to the inconsiderate passenger in front as they are being to them by wobbling the seat that is nearly in their face.

I am tall and have 'accidently' repeatedly kneed the back of a recliners seat if they don't respond to a polite request, one commented to me and I just apologised and I said sorry I cant do anything there is hardly any room back here and when I try to move to get comfortable my knee hits the seat, you could put you seat upright and it would be ok, and they still didn't!!

The lady did nothing wrong. She declined her seat, which was built to recline.

I understand that this will have been frustrating for the passenger behind her, but it is tough luck and did not justify his actions, which were disgusting.

I generally recline on flights. I travel mostly long haul though. I wait until after the first meal has been cleaned up/trays collected and then recline until the next meal, where I pull my seat up again, so the person behind can eat comfortably. Not always do I receive the same courtesy from the person in front of me, but I wouldn’t behave like this gentleman did.

What do you call a fist making contact with something? Isn't that a punch albeit a low level one? Also she said he punched it forcefully to begin with then resorted to this when she started filming him

This 'it's a facility provided by the airline so I have the right to use it' is a very bizarre argument. Most cars will do 100 plus miles an hour but the police won't take that as an excuse.

People seem to more and more be living in their own little bubbles where only what suits them best matters.

Some cunt reclined his seat during the meal of a 2 hour flight I was on last year and knocked wine all over me.

Imagine if that had been coffee or tea! Always scalding on flights! He could have really burned you.

it's a facility provided by the airline so I have the right to use it' is a very bizarre argument. Most cars will do 100 plus miles an hour but the police won't take that as an excuse.

Driving at 100mph breaks the rules of the road you are using. Reclining a seat doesn’t break any rules or laws.

He was repeatedly pushing it, pretty gently from what I can see. It also looks like he was trying to use his table, but her reclining made that difficult. She's a selfish arse

It looks like she joined Twitter solely to publicise the incident (to shame the airline), sold the footage to someone (Daily Wail?) and is definitely out to get airline. Says she had bad headaches, needed xray, had time off work. It all happened weeks ago.

I guess she's getting something out of all this that she wants.