A United Airlines passenger was caught on video ‘body slamming’ his seat for two hours straight on an early morning flight from Denver to Chicago O’Hare, but everyone’s a little confused as to why he was acting in such a performative manner.
The man’s ‘tantrum’ was captured by a passenger sitting in the row behind in Economy Plus, which should have given him a little bit more leg room, although he didn’t seem to be happy with his seat assignment.
Man threw a tantrum on our 6am flight
by u/there_was_a_mollusk in unitedairlines
The leading theory as to why the man appeared to be so upset is that the passenger sitting behind him was a 6’7″ giant, which meant that even with the additional legroom, his knees were still pressed up against the seat in front.
Perhaps the man wasn’t able to recline his seat or could feel the knees of the man sitting behind him digging into the seat.
Whatever the underlying issue was, the man appeared to want to show his annoyance as much as possible by repeatedly launching his body into his seat and causing it to jolt backwards.
The passenger who took the video said that the person sitting directly behind the man seemed “completely unbothered” by his seatmate’s antics, even though the seat kept on hitting his knees.
“On UA-1377 yesterday, we took an early morning flight, and this man repeatedly slammed his body against his chair every few min for 2 hours straight,” the passenger wrote in a post on Reddit.
“The man sitting behind was 6’7” and completely unbothered (go off, king). We were sitting in Economy Plus. The flight attendant was aware, but the most bizarre thing was the lack of communication from the man that was obviously upset.”
In a follow-up comment, the passenger continued: “Maybe not relevant, but my fiancé sat in the middle seat and told me the guy in front slamming his chair: paid for internet, was watching videos about guns, and had a cart open at the end of the flight to buy ammunition.
“Regardless of his ~interests~ though, adult emotional regulation and communication skills were nowhere to be seen.”
It’s the kind of incident that once again raises the ugly question of whether passengers should be allowed to recline on a plane… because, let’s face it, if the body slamming man didn’t have the option to recline his seat, then he wouldn’t be upset by the passenger sitting behind him blocking this functionality of the seat.
Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer to this problem. If an airline installs seats that can recline, it should be reasonably expected that passengers are allowed to use that feature, even on shorter flights.
It’s not like the taller passenger was deliberately trying to prevent the man from reclining his seat… It’s just that he was so tall, his knees got in the way.
In the ideal world, a flight attendant would move him to an exit row seat with even more legroom so that everyone on the flight could be comfortable, but these aren’t always available, and nowadays these seats are sold at a premium.
As a flight attendant, my general opinion is that when a seat can recline, then passengers absolutely have the right to recline their seat. If that isn’t possible for whatever reason, then reasonable efforts should be made to accommodate passengers.
Now, if being unable to recline your seat justifies body slamming the seat and potentially damaging it, is a totally different question.
