We Had An Airplane Brawl Break Out Over A Reclined Seat
KXAN- A video captured on an American Airlines flight from New Orleans to Austin shows a fist fight that broke out between passengers on Sunday. A passenger on the flight sent KXAN video of what happened, and said two were detained shortly after the incident. but Austin Police said they didn’t arrest anyone.
The passenger went on to say the incident began “over a seat that couldn’t unrecline.”
FINALLY. After God knows how many airplane fight videos hit the World Wide Web over the last year, we have battle with a cause worthy of fists of fury being thrown. The skies have turned unfriendly due to political debates, mask banter, or people being just good old fashioned pieces of shit. Actually a bunch of those pieces of shit deserved to get their faces bashed in. But a brouhaha rooted in a battle over a reclined seat is as relatable as it gets.
Someone smashing that recline button to get like 3 inches of extra room, which in turn puts them all up in your kitchen, can turn even the mildest mannered person into a mushroom cloud laying motherfucker. Doubly so if you tell them that the seat won't unrecline, which no person sitting in the back seat will actually believe. Whenever the person in front of me reclines their seat, I imagine different ways of throwing them off the plane since there sliiiiiiiight increase of relaxation has just completely shattered any chance I have of being comfortable until the flight attendance order seats and trays to be placed in upright position. That is the case even if it's on a trip as short as from New Orleans to Austin.
That may only be a 91 minute flight but it would feel like a 91 hour flight if you have some rando on your lap the entire time. In fact, if the people in that video went to New Orleans for pleasure instead of business, it's damn near a miracle someone didn't get murdered since a trip home from New Orleans is number 2 on my power rankings for worst trips home behind only Vegas. Every part of these guys' souls were doing everything they could to avoid crumpling up and dying from what I imagine would be unlimited debauchery. So if you throw a couple of people in that state of mind in close quarters with a permanently reclined seat, a melee is going to break out every single time.
However my favorite part of the fight is that it appeared to start between the two gentlemen wearing hats before the guy in the white hat hit the dude in the middle, which caused him to unleash holy hell. But when you dress like Waldo, you shouldn't be shocked if someone doesn't notice you once they start throwing hands in a fit of rage since those red and white horizontal stripes are the official outfit of blending in, even more so than military grade camo.