Sometimes the skies really aren't all that friendly.
A viral video showing a man punching the back of a woman's reclined airplane seat has recently gripped the internet and sparked a viral debate all centered around one very important question: who's the real jerk here?
Suffice it to say, everyone has an opinion on this one.
"Here's a great jackhole!" the woman captioned the post. "He was angry that I reclined my seat and punched it about 9 times — HARD!"
She goes on to explain that this behavior is what prompted her to get out her phone and start recording the man behind her, and also revealed that a flight attendant took the man's side, even offering him a free drink for his troubles.
According to Huffington Post, he was seated in the very back row of the plane, which means his own seat wasn't able to recline like the woman's in front of him.
Williams actually agreed to hold off from reclining her seat back until the man was done eating, as per his request. But although she did indeed wait to recline, the man still proceeded to punch the back of her seat.
As she explained online, the attendant agreed that the man's backseat row was "tight", and then offered him free rum. She also told Williams to delete the video she took since it's "against the law to video on a plane."
After demanding to know the attendant's name, Williams was given a Passenger Disturbance Notice.
Some people sided with Williams and agreed the man was being unreasonably aggressive towards her reclined seat.
As one user wrote, "This man is literally the worst human in the world and anyone who is calling him a hero or defending him is a giant LOSER that doesn’t know if a seat can recline, then you are 100% allowed to recline."
"You have reclined your seat all the way back," this user reasoned. "His seat is fixed and won’t recline back so he is squashed in his space. Did he ask for your co-operation to not recline back so far? It would have been helpful if there was CO-OPERATION between the both of you."
Another person added, "The benefit you get from reclining pales into insignificance measured against the discomfort and pain you cause the passenger that you are reclining into. It is a selfish move."
Dubbing the incident an "assault", she said she will be contacting the FBI in order to press charges against the man who "mistook [her] for a punching bag."
An American Airlines spokesperson has told Fox News the airline is “aware” of the video and is “looking into the issue.”
In an interview with CNBC TV, Bastian simply said all airplane passenger should ask the permission of the person behind them before reclining their seat:
"I think if someone knows there’s a tall person behind them and they want to recline their seat, I think the polite thing would be to make certain that it was okay.
"I don’t ever recline because I don’t think that, since I’m the CEO of an airline that I should be reclining my seat and I never say something if someone reclines into me."
h/t: Huffington Post
