T wo passengers were embroiled in a heated argument aboard an airplane which operated as United Airlines flight 1462 over seat recline on Sunday, August 24, 2014 — resulting in the airplane being diverted to Chicago, where police and agents of the Transportation Security Administration were summoned.
The fight reportedly started when the male passenger — seated in a middle seat of row 12 in the Economy Plus cabin — used a device known as the Knee Defender to stop the woman in front of him from reclining while he was using his laptop computer, according to this article written by Scott Mayerowitz of the Associated Press.
A flight attendant asked the 48-year-old man to remove the device. After he refused, the woman — also 48 years old — stood up, turned around and allegedly threw a cup of water at him, which resulted of the diversion of the airplane to Chicago instead of its original intended destination of Denver. The flight originated in Newark.
Seat recline has been a hotly-debated topic of contention of frequent fliers for many years. I personally have never really understood why there is such a big deal pertaining to seat recline. I never had a problem with someone in front of me who decided to recline his or her seat; nor have I had an issue with someone who was seated directly behind me whenever I reclined my seat. I do like to recline my seat even if the additional comfort is only marginal at best — but since learning over the years of how adamant are FlyerTalk members on either side of this issue, I have since resorted to the practice of asking the passenger behind me if he or she minds if I recline my seat; and I cannot recall my request ever being denied.
The Knee Defender was invented back in 2003 which prevents the passenger in front of you from reclining his or her seat. This product had reportedly been banned on some airlines — such as on United Airlines back in 2004, the same airline on which this incident occurred — but use of the product is supposedly not against the law, as long as it is not used during taxiing, takeoffs or landings of aircraft.
It is a debate where no one seems to be happy: those who are for reclining seats want to be more comfortable and have more space as well as purportedly better air flow from an overhead vent — not that the recline is all that significant in the first place — while those who are against reclining seats feel as though the passengers in the seats directly in front of them are encroaching on what little space they have where they cannot work on a computer or eat a meal comfortably.
Perhaps I am wrong, but my opinion remains the same as what I originally wrote in this article on February 23, 2013: the problem stems more from a lack of consideration and respect for fellow passengers rather than from the issue of comfort. Passengers should be able to quickly work out a compromise without having to resort to confrontations to resolve what should be a simple minor issue at best. In this case, there certainly was no need for the situation to get out of control by the two passengers in question, as the behavior of both of them was inexcusable and unacceptable.
If passengers were more polite, considerate and respectful of each other, this whole debate over the recline of seats on commercial aircraft would be a minor issue at best — if at all.
