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Cape Town – It seems to have been a bit of a tense week for airline passengers, as not one, not two, but three in-flight brawls made headline news.
Interestingly, two of the incidents were sparked by disagreements over the ever-contentious reclining seat.
In the first episode of reclining seat rage, two United Airlines passengers got into a heated battle over one’s use of a so-called Knee Defender, a nifty gadget passengers can attach to their tray tables to prevent the person in front of them from ending up in their laps.
Well, the front passenger was not at all impressed with their inability to sit back and decided to empty her glass of water over the man behind her, when he flat out refused to remove the gadget.
In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration has no set rules about the device, leaving it up to individual airlines to decide.
Even though the device is not currently available in South Africa (you can buy it on the Knee Defender site, however, for about $35.89 or about R381 at R10.63/dollar) we were wondering what the local policies were regarding these types of gadgets.
Similarly to the FAA, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) says that unless devices brought on board are defined in the prescribed list of prohibited items, they cannot and will not interfere.
"There are no regulations about the positioning of seats unless these affect safety... The positioning of seats for comfort can be enforced by passengers using various devices or tactics," says CAA Senior Communications Manager, Phindiwe Gwebu.
She added that matters concerning the comfort of passengers on board have to be dealt with by the crew.
Things escalated to such a degree that the flight, which was en route from Newark, New Jersey to Denver, Colorado, had to divert and make an emergency landing at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
The passengers were escorted off the flight by police and not allowed back on, even though they weren’t charged with any criminal behaviour.
Reclining seat battle: take two
Barely two days later, a similar scuffle broke loose on an American Airlines flight when passenger Edmund Alexandre became upset after the woman in front of him reclined her seat. Despite efforts from flight crew members to calm him down, he remained disruptive and the Miami-to-Paris flight had to be diverted to Boston.
He was arrested on arrival for interfering with a flight crew and taken to a state hospital for observation. Turns out the poor guy suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, which could have been the cause of excessive stress.
Drunken brawl
Finally, a Sunwing flight en route from Toronto to Cuba, had to be escorted back to Canada by fighter jets after two women (presumably travelling together) got stuck into their duty free alcohol in the plane’s bathroom, smoked a cigarette and had a fight.
The plane was well into US airspace, flying over South Carolina state in fact, when the pilot decided to turn around.
The two women are now facing charges and according AFP, the entire plane "erupted in cheers" when the two were removed from the aircraft
Guess it must have been something in the air, or what? (ba-da-boom-tish!)
So, all these stories have made us wonder - have you ever been on a flight with misbehaving fellow passengers? Tell us your story in the comment section below or send us a mail to info@traveller24.co.za
