Woman Whose Reclined Airplane Seat Was Repeatedly Punched By Furious Passenger Shares Story

Sep 29, 2021 by apost team

Flying can be challenging. You often feel rushed at the airport and having to go through security can take longer than we’d like. Traveling by plane can become even more stressful when there is an argument or altercation during the flight. It seems these days there are more and more stories of drama and difficult situations starting on planes. 

Wendi Williams was taking a flight from New Orleans to Charlotte, North Carolina in February 2020 when she had an unwelcome interaction with an unnamed male passenger. Coming home from a teacher’s conference, Willaims reclined her seat only to be asked by the bearded male passenger in the last row to put her seat back up. From then on, he began to not only just tap but also punch the back of her seat to the point that it was extremely worrisome for Williams. 

Reportedly, Williams was impeding his ability to enjoy his meal by lowering her seat, but Willaims responded by saying that she did as the man asked and put her seat back up. About 10 minutes later, when Williams noticed that the man had finished eating, she once again reclined her seat. This is what eventually caused the problem, and led to a harrowing experience for Williams, which she shared with Fox News after she landed. 

Williams reported that when she tried to get help from the airline staff, she was ignored and the staff sided with the other passenger instead. Williams then uploaded a video of her experience onto the internet, where she got different reactions. 

Williams appeared on television to explain her side of the story. "The hits just kept on coming literally and figuratively. From the guy then the flight attendant," Willaims told Fox News. Speaking about the situation, Willaims added that she was looking to press charges against the unidentified man, and also wanted the flight attendant who sided with the man to be fired. 

Willaims is a school teacher, and she said that she has fused vertebrae, which is why she needed to recline her seat to be able to sit comfortably. "I was leaving a teacher's conference and we got onto the plane and the man behind me, as soon as we got in the air, I reclined and he asked me if … I would put my seat back up while he ate, which I did," Williams stated. 

"About 10 minutes later, he was done and I put my seat back down at which point he started full-on punching the back of my seat really hard that I was flying forward," she continued. At one point during the video, the passenger asks Williams, “What’s your problem?” as Willaims replies that she has none.

Willaims soon turned to a flight attendant for help but was shocked to find that the plane’s staff had sided with the passenger that was causing her such discomfort. Willaims got even angrier when the flight attendant handed her a passenger disturbance notice and threatened to have her removed from the plane.

"I thought, I'm just going to keep videoing this guy because nobody else was doing anything," Williams explained. "And I thought he would completely stop but he continued throughout."

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After landing, Willaims posted her video of the encounter to social media, where it became a viral hit and sparked debate over which passenger was in the right. Many people sided with Willaims, arguing that it was completely within her right to recline her seat back. Others are not so sympathetic to Willaims, and these commentators argue that Wendi violated the man’s space by reclining her chair.

There is data that suggests that airline passengers have become harder to deal with in recent years. Nearly 5,000 Flight Attendants that represent 30 airlines completed the Association of Flight Attendants’s “Unruly Passengers Survey. "The survey found that: “85% percent of respondents reported having dealt with at least one unruly passenger so far in 2021. 58% percent reported handling at least five incidents. And a shocking 17% reported a physical confrontation with a passenger."

Sara Nelson, President of AFA-CWA said, “This survey confirms what we all know, the vitriol, verbal and physical abuse from a small group of passengers is completely out of control, and is putting other passengers and flight crew at risk. This is not just about masks as some have attempted to claim. There is a lot more going on here and the solutions require a series of actions in coordination across aviation.” 

She continued, “It is time to make the FAA ‘zero tolerance’ policy permanent, the Department of Justice to utilize existing statute to conduct criminal prosecution, and implement a series of actions proposed by our union to keep problems on the ground and respond effectively in the event of incidents.” Being up in the air with a passenger that is making a scene can be quite scary. 

What do you think of Wendi’s story? Was it okay for Wendi to recline her seat or was she in the wrong? Do you think it is reasonable for airlines to expect passengers to deal with such limited space? Tell us your thoughts, ad be sure to ask your friends about their opinion of this story.