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.
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The woman in the reclined seat, Wendi Williams, posted the video to her Twitter account on February 8.
“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.
In the clip, the man can be seen continuously bumping the back of Williams’ reclined seat with his hands.
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.
Apparently the pair were initially quite civil with each other.
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.
In a separate tweet, Williams blasted the flight attendant who served the man a complimentary beverage.
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.
Williams’ video of the incident has quickly gone viral and effectively divided the internet over airplane etiquette.
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.”
However, it definitely seems like the majority of Twitter users felt that Williams was actually the jerk in this whole situation.
“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.”
Williams has since posted an update to the situation and revealed she is going to press charges against the seat-puncher.
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.”
As for the people who are saying she was actually in the wrong, Williams simply wrote, “I don’t care!”
An American Airlines spokesperson has told Fox News the airline is “aware” of the video and is “looking into the issue.”
Most recently, Delta airline CEO Ed Bastian has spoken out about the controversial matter to settle this dispute once and for all.
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
