Peter Schorsch
It’s Presidents Day. It’s also less than a month to Florida’s presidential primary. And we’re smack dab in the middle of the 2020 Legislative Session. So you would think there would be more important subjects to write about than an incident on an airline.
But what happened on a Jan. 31 American Eagle flight, in which a “fed-up” passenger punched the seat of the woman in front of him to get her to put her seat back in the upright position, is not a laughing matter.
It shouldn’t be fodder for late-night comedians or snarky blog writers.
It shouldn’t be a conversation starter, either, except for what charges should be filed against the passenger punching the seat in front of him.
In case you missed it, Wendi Williams, who describes herself as a teacher in Virginia Beach, shared on Twitter footage of a man seated behind her repeatedly pushing the back of her seat with his fist. She says before she started recording, he was actually forcefully punching her seat.
At some point in the flight, Williams says the man seated behind her asked her “with an attitude” to return her seat to the upright position so he could eat from the tray table.
So she did — but when he was done eating, she said, she reclined her seat once again.
That’s when he started “hammering away,” she said. “He was angry that I reclined my seat and punched it about 9 times – HARD,” Williams wrote.
So, she started recording him.
In the video, the man, who hasn’t been identified, looks down at his phone on the tray table and continues to push her seat so it rocks. He appears to be seated against a wall and can’t recline his own seat.
Williams later characterized the incident as an assault.
Williams is absolutely right.
What she videoed happening to her is assault. The man in the video is not punching the seat. He’s punching her.
Deliberately and violently pushing one grocery cart into another so it bangs into the person you think is in your way in a shopping aisle is assault.
Deliberately and violently slamming a door on someone as they try to enter a public space is assault and battery.
Deliberately and violently punching a seat so that it shakes and hurts the person sitting in it is assault and battery.
Unfortunately for Williams, after she alerted a flight attendant, the Aunt Lydia of the skies “rolled her eyes” and offered the man she accused of hitting her seat some complimentary rum, she wrote in a tweet.
“She gave me a passenger disturbance notice & threatened to have me escorted off the plane!” she tweeted. “My crime was reclining my seat.”
After Williams tweeted about what happened to her, instead of the online world crowdsourcing the identity of the man in the video so that he could be shamed for what he did, if not arrested for it, the incident became a debate of, um, passenger etiquette.
“A plane passenger filmed a man repeatedly pushing her reclined seat with his fist. Who’s wrong here?” reads a headline on CNN.
“Is it wrong to recline your airline seat? Debate rages again after American Airlines incident” asks the USA Today.
Wait, what?
How did a situation in which a man physically attacks a woman become fodder for the whataboutism crowd?
So long as Williams did nothing to provoke an act of self-defense — and, sorry, not sorry, pressing the recline button on your airline seat is not a threat to anyone’s safety — there is zero justification for what that man did.
Again, what you watched in that video is ASSAULT AND BATTERY.
He should be arrested. The enabling flight attendant should be disciplined.
By the way, what was going through Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian‘s head when he weighed in on the incident and said passengers should ask permission from their fellow passengers before pushing back their seats?
For one thing, it’s public relations 101 that when your competitor is setting itself on fire, you don’t have to pour gasoline on your own company. Second, and more importantly, before he discussed the etiquette of the air, he should have told the interviewer that what happened in the video is not acceptable and that such behavior would not be tolerated on his airline.
And, no, I am not going to snark at Bastian by saying “Build planes with more room for seats to recline,” because this incident is not about reclining a seat. It’s about what constitutes assault. Build planes with BarcaLoungers for seats and there will still be someone who thinks that’s not enough space.
Kudos to my friend, Christian Minor, an advocate for the Florida Juvenile Justice Association, for being one of the first to speak out on social media against Bastian’s brain-dead comments:
And with that, I’ll be cancelling my @Delta Amex Card and trading it in for one with no ties to the airline
I’ll also no longer fly the airline
When a CEO defends the essential assault of a paying (female) customer, that tells me all I need to know of company values of #Delta https://t.co/JDNowYchyv
— Christian Minor (@chris_minor10) February 15, 2020
My wife, Michelle, and I discussed what happened in this incident. She reminded me of the too-many times strangers have approached her in a threatening manner after little or no provocation. (For example, a middle-aged man was on the verge of assaulting Michelle because she had the audacity to stand in the back of the room at a recital at the Magic Kingdom and record it on her phone; never mind that everyone else in the room was recording the performance or that Michelle was not in anyone’s way; this man just thought it was appropriate to speak to a woman in a frightening manner.)
Michelle says these incidents happen when I am not around, leading her to believe that many people will speak to a woman who is alone much differently than they would if she was with a partner.
Isn’t that what happened here?
Is there any way the man recorded in this video punches the back of this woman’s seat if she is not alone? It’s highly doubtful.
But a woman, especially in this freedom-loving country, should not have to not be alone in order to not be concerned about her personal safety.
This is not Gilead. Not yet, at least.
32 comments
bill bauman
February 17, 2020 at 8:04 am
It is very rude to recline your seat in these tiny airline rows, without first asking permission from the person you are about to recline onto. How about being polite for a change?
Topher
February 17, 2020 at 9:03 am
Where is your request of politeness for the man who was punching the back of the seat? And even if it’s rude (It’s actaully not by the way), it doesn’t warrent being assaulted. Period.
Janet
February 17, 2020 at 10:37 am
The way the man handled that situation was definitely wrong..but the woman should have asked if it would be ok.. Because I can see that the man has very little space I personally couldn’t fly like that
Mike
February 17, 2020 at 1:17 pm
No one should ask for permissions to lean back. That’s why they provided a button. If anything they should make more space on these planes to begin with like they used to instead of trying to squeeze people in to make a profit.
Robert Surkomach
February 21, 2020 at 11:13 am
Yes, agree with your assessment.
Robert Surkomach
February 21, 2020 at 9:44 am
No need to ask. Seats recline on airplanes, tough for people who don’t realize it.
Robert Surkomach
February 21, 2020 at 9:39 am
Yup, agree. The guy was the rude idiot.
Robert Surkomach
February 21, 2020 at 9:39 am
Not rude at all. Seat reclines, he bought a seat that didn’t, she did. The sissy of a man wouldn’t have done that if it was another man in that seat.
gary
February 17, 2020 at 10:51 am
100 bucks says that ball thing is a soy boy snowflake demoRAT!
Ann Marie De Marco
February 17, 2020 at 11:44 am
Where were the flight attendants during this whole fiasco? If there was another seat available, they could have asked either one if they’d like to move. Also, when you book your flight, aren’t you able to see where you will be sitting on the plane? I would say that they are both in the wrong. However, the airline should have not compensated the gentleman for his childish behavior. They were both inconvenienced, both of them should have been compensated.
Robert Surkomach
February 21, 2020 at 11:15 am
Have the airline pay for his bad and immature behavior ? Lucky he wasn’t arrested.
Elaine
February 17, 2020 at 12:16 pm
Peter, I think your assessment of the situation is right on. Where is it now written that reclining your seat today is an etiquette or illegal act? If he didn’t have enough room to sit in the chair or be able to use his tray table, why didn’t the man ask her nicely as a favor to not recline her seat, instead of assaulting her? His behavior is inexcusable and should have been treated legally as an assault. Are we now condoning behavior of assaulting people on planes through their backs of their seat as being okay?
OlRedHair
February 17, 2020 at 12:44 pm
I agree with everything you said, and most of all that American Airlines and specifically that flight attendant should be prosecuted. What about utilizing facial recognition software to find out who Bully Boy is? He needs to be outed.
Mike
February 17, 2020 at 1:43 pm
I am with Peter on this one. No matter the other facts, if there wasn’t a women in front of him, he wouldn’t be bashing the seat. Seems men behave a bit better when they know they have a chance of getting blasted up side the head for their bad behavior. Hopefully this guy get what is due to him. As far as the Delta CEO? Text book case study of how not to respond to an incident with a customer.
paul
February 17, 2020 at 3:13 pm
This will lead to all american airlines deciding to not have any reclining seatbacks. This has been a problem for many years and with the decline of legroom has increased agitation of passengers. The answer is for all passengers who have problems with this to just buy First Class seats. Yes, it is more expensive but will solve the temper tantrums of little boys.
Nick
February 17, 2020 at 6:16 pm
Yea,yea the guy’s a jerk I guess. However, I have been there. I recall an incident on a flight to London out of Toronto in the early 2000s. I am a tall guy, my knees stick out. The woman in front of me tried to recline her seat, this forcibly jammed the back of her seat into my knees. She did it again, I thought perhaps she didn’t know what she was doing. She proceeded to do it a third time. At this point she turned around and said “I can’t recline my seat because of your knees.” I responded in total shock “look, I guess we are both going to have to learn to live with it!” What a horrible woman that was. I was being polite because I thought she didn’t know she was hurting me. I was wrong, she did not care. Yes, I pictured doing something unpleasant to her, but of course I did not. In response to an earlier commentor, had it been a guy…yes things would have turned out differently. I might have turned him out of his seat and onto the floor. Everybody needs to learn to be considerate.
Robert Surkomach
February 21, 2020 at 11:19 am
You should have bought a seat with more leg room. On you……
Nick
February 21, 2020 at 1:19 pm
I totally agree. Only folks who can afford to pay five times more should be treated with respect……
I have never, never, never reclined my seat in an airplane without the explicit permission of the person behind me. That is because I am not a jerk. I also would never hit the seat in front of me, because I am not a jerk.
He may have been totally out of line, although I do find it curious the the flight attendant took his part and she was the only third party who really saw how the whole thing happened. There may be good arguments against the man, but the elitism that only first class deserves respect is rife in these comments. I did not buy a seat against a wall, however if somehow you must go somewhere at the last minute and there are no seats left, you take what you can get. You still deserve respect. Cancel culture at its best on display. “With limited evidence let’s crucify somebody we don’t know for an event we know almost nothing about!”
Bill
February 17, 2020 at 9:01 pm
He is very fortunate that was not me in the seat in front of him
Daniel
February 17, 2020 at 11:26 pm
My opinion is that both of them are wrong. It was obvious to her that she was reclining on his already limited space. Why didn’t she just put her seat up. The guy is wrong by hitting her seat constantly. I don’t think it should be going to court, because like I said, they were both wrong. She as antignoisng him and he beating her seat. Someone’s got to give, and the stewardess should have used better judgment. What done is done and is over.
Connie
February 18, 2020 at 12:23 am
My daughter is a flight attendant. I definitely disagree with the individual blaming the flight attendant—who is probably doing the best she can under adverse circumstances— for what occurred, especially the wild talk of “assault” and court charges. People: get a grip. I agree with the person who says that both people bear some blame for the incident. One “fix” for this problem would be for airlines to not allow ANYONE’S seat to recline. It’s not a good thing to anticipate that privilege being eliminated, but, as I explained it to my spouse, it’s a bit like being playground supervisor (I taught school 37 years) and not being allowed to let anyone go back in the building when recess is ongoing, even if they have a good reason. Teachers have to think of the whole issue and act accordingly, with objectivity and while trying to be fair to all. For every child who would behave appropriately, unsupervised in the building, there is one who would set off a fire alarm or do something equally stupid.
In this case, the “something stupid” extends to both the man in the seat and the woman reclining her seat into him. Enough stories like this one will cost ALL airline passengers the ability to recline their seats. As for me, I’m cool with that. I always remember how awful it is to have the passenger in the seat ahead of me recline his or her seat right into my mid-section and I NEVER recline mine, for that reason. In this case, the man could not recline his seat at all because he was against the rest room wall. Yes, he behaved badly, but so did she. This talk of “back issues” sounds bogus. I totally disagree with the “slant” (pun intended) of the original author, who does not seem to have ever been in that non-reclining hell hole spot. Both of these people behaved badly, despite the fact that the seats (currently) DO recline and cause these situations. People in this day and age are completely self-centered. The civility level has declined to levels lower than the belly of a snake. Compensate each person financially with “freebie” airline passes and apologies to each. The only way the airline, itself, deserves “blame” is for having seats that, currently, are allowed to decline and practically cut the individual in the seat behind in half. The guy was a jerk (join that large club) and the woman also displayed (some) jerk-like tendencies. She has the writer of THIS article on her side, but real people in the real world should think about each individual’s actions in the harsh light of reality.
Brian
February 18, 2020 at 10:42 am
If him slapping her seat is assault (and I recognize legally it may be), then why isn’t her slamming her seat into his knees also assault? If she assaulted him first would that be an extenuating circumstance? Why do people think that because your seat can recline you have a right to take the space another person is occupying?
Bernadette
February 18, 2020 at 12:00 pm
I completely agree with you. He assaulted her. He bullied her. He would never have done this to another man or to her if she were accompanied by a man. Let’s out him and shame him. The man backing him up don’t surprise me; though do disappoint and scare me. The women defending the guy and justifying his behavior scare me though. They kneeJERK defend this guy and criticize her for being a whiny drama queen. Will we women ever gain the self-esteem to claim our space and stand up for each other?
OlRedHair
February 18, 2020 at 12:53 pm
Thank YOU, Bernadette!
Let’s out this jerk. Someone has to know who he is.
And I’m hoping the victim has gotten herself an excellent legal team.
PAUL
February 18, 2020 at 1:22 pm
Oh come on Brian, she in no way was assaulting him. The seat reclines at the top only a few inches at the top of the back portion of the seat into space whereas at the bottom hardly extends at all, so it hardly affects the leg room. It’s not as if the seat is hitting him in the head!! And that jerk in the backseat should’ve known at the time of ticket purchase that the seat had no reclining seat option, so he had an option to purchase a different seat at a higher price. Wendi is being victimized because that jerk is a cheapstake!
OleFloridacracker
February 19, 2020 at 10:34 am
You had me until you blamed this on Trump era. Look how the Democrats and many people who follow them hurl insults and, yes, physical attacks. And it is continual. Doesn’t stop.
Leave the politics out please.
Jay Ram Rod
February 19, 2020 at 11:42 am
@OleFloridacracker: after I wrote the “Trump rudeness” sentence I knew it would turn some agin the crux of my message — partly I was baited out by @gary insult “soy boy snowflake demoRAT”. The level of @gary rudeness compared with my tempered recognition that the Trump instigated promoted nasty words & actions have notched-up American’s general viciousness — is typified. @gary a Trumper is spewing rude nastys about baldy-boy, I merely state Trump has influenced the tone & temper of social interaction to a petty level, which escalates fast.
Wendi has the “right” to tilt back — or the ability — BaldyBoy has the “ability” to pound on her seat back for ten minutes. Now Wendi has to retaliate — maybe she accidentally spills a cup of boiling hot coffee on his head, then BaldyBoy escalates and breaks her neck: everyone, both sides, have to “win” — no compromise. Compromise shows weakness — means Wendi lost. So Wendi didn’t escalate THEN but the civil way — in court. For her temperance I applaud her; macho folk wud’ve kept escalating physically or verbally IN THE MOMENT. But BullyBaldyBoy “won” — got a free drink — and the petty gratification that he bullied a frail lady. Real tuff boy.
Wendi has back vertebrae problems — she needed to recline 3 inches. The stewardess could’ve de-escalated earlier and in many creative ways. How about find ONE nearby passenger who didn’t need to recline for an hour flight, and swap with Wendi — give all 3 a free beverage?
Lastly, it’s that Baldy’s petty assault on Wendi’s seat back and her head was a BULLY act against a presumed helpless woman is what is so offensive about this situation. Her justice is relegated to the civil courts — that’s the American way to “be civil”.
I still say #Me-Too. If there were no witnesses, Lord knows what Baldy might’ve felt justified to do to his victim.
OleFloridacracker
February 19, 2020 at 9:26 pm
Alrighty Jay Ram Rod.
We’re all good. 🙂😁
OleFloridacracker
February 19, 2020 at 11:03 am
Peter, I am impressed with your veracity and writing with this article. Thank you.
I fly for a competitor. I don’t believe any of us reading this were there. So many things that happen on planes are not always as we see on the videos taken in the moment. With that said…..
I would have handled the situation very differently as a crew member, but, lets remember that New Orleans to Charlotte is so quick. I think the plane is in the air for an hour?
I do think it would be sad to take the reclining option completely away. It seems to me that Miss Williams wanted to relax for at least a part of the flight. The man was able to eat. I am guessing that he was upset about getting a last row seat, and unfortunately took it out on her when she enjoyed her better seat. Even after accommodating him.
Remember, you can only put the seat back after the plane lifts off until the “preparation for landing” announcement is made.
I completely agree with everyone that this man should have behaved with decency and not with directed emotion. And liquor on top of it. Ay ya ya. 🤦🏼♀️
OlRedHair
February 19, 2020 at 12:19 pm
Very well said! Agree completely.
Robert Surkomach
February 21, 2020 at 11:16 am
Spot on ! He was a immature twit…
Susani
February 23, 2020 at 10:25 pm
That woman is full of it. First of all, she was filming the man, which only exacerbates things. Second, if I was her I would have asked the man if he could stop pushing her chair and if he didn’t stop, then I would talk to the flight attendant and hopefully the problem would be resolved. Third, she claims that she missed work, had went to the doctor, had xrays, and had horrible headaches? I don’t think you can get those symptoms if he was like in the video NUDGING her chair. I think both were wrong in this situation, and I think I think it could have been dealt a little better. I also think that the woman kind of exaggerated for the most part because I think trying to press charges against the man and wanting to fire the flight attendant is kind of extreme. For God’s sake, American Airlines did apologize for the incident, what else more does she want? It ISN’T assault either when the guy is just nudging the back of her seat. I can tell you I had an incident similar to this in which a man behind me wouldn’t let me recline my seat because he was on his computer. I was sick and you think that’s rude! I didn’t say anything because I was a kid, and I wasn’t very vocal about my thoughts. What do you think about that?
Comments are closed.