The flight was supposed to last less than two hours, quick and painless. Instead, it turned into what one passenger described as a painful assault -- and a lightning rod for what constitutes proper airline etiquette.
Wendi Williams, who describes herself as a teacher in Virginia Beach, tweeted about the experience on an American Airlines flight in January.
In footage she shared on Twitter, which has been shared widely and viewed hundreds of thousands of times online, the man seated behind her repeatedly pushed the back of her seat with his fist. She says before she started filming, he was actually forcefully punching her seat.
Why? Because she reclined it.
This video has the internet legitimately divided .Dude is in the last seat on the plane. Seat doesn’t recline.Hers does. And she reclines.He’s upset, and is punching her seat incessantly— so she records.Who is right?!Who is wrong?!See you at 7p on #FOX5LION@fox5dc pic.twitter.com/jjjTLLwvEc
— Marina Marraco (@MarinaMarraco) February 12, 2020
The man's actions -- and Williams' decision to recline the seat into a row with no ability to do the same -- has sparked a heated conversation about etiquette at 30,000 feet.
How it happened
Williams was flying from a teacher's convention in New Orleans to a connection in Charlotte, North Carolina, she wrote on Twitter. The footage appears to show she was seated in the second-to-last row in the cabin.
That's when she reclined her chair.
At some point in the flight, the man seated behind her asked Williams "with an attitude" to return her seat to the upright position so he could eat from the tray table, she said.
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," she wrote.
So, Williams 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.
"I have 1 cervical disk left that isn't fused," she wrote on Twitter. "It's scary bc [sic] it's this the kind of injury that could do it in."
Williams did not respond to CNN's multiple requests for comment.
She accused the flight attendant of ignoring her pleas
The woman didn't share details from her January 31 flight until this month. She tried to handle it with the airline through direct messaging but wasn't content to settle things quietly, she explained on Twitter.
"I'm in pain," she tweeted. "I've lost time at work, had to visit a doctor, got X-rays, and have has [sic] horrible headaches for a week."
She said she alerted a flight attendant as soon as the punching started. But the woman "rolled her eyes" at Williams 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 airing her grievances with American Airlines, she said the airline told her to contact the FBI to investigate her claims. She didn't pursue the agency's help.
In a statement to CNN, American Airlines said it was aware of the "customer dispute."
"The safety and comfort of our customers and team members is our top priority, and our team is looking into the issue."
American Airlines confirmed Williams' January 31 American Eagle flight 4392, operated by Republic Airways but did not confirm whether Williams had pressed charges.
On Twitter, Williams has repeatedly called on the airline to release the identity of the man seated behind her.
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