For the third time in a little over a week, a flight has been diverted because of a passenger fight over reclining seats.
News 4 Jax reports that a Delta Airlines flight from New York City to Palm Beach, Florida, was diverted to Jacksonville after an argument broke out between two passengers.
They were fighting over a reclining seat — one passenger who was trying to sleep on a tray table got angry when the passenger in front of her tried to recline her seat.
A witness told the news station:
This woman sitting next to me knitting tried reclining her seat back, the woman behind her started screaming and swearing. The flight attendant came over, and that exacerbated what was going on. She demanded the flight land. ...
She said something to the effect of, 'I don't care about the consequences, put this plane down now.' She started swearing at the flight attendants and demanding the flight land. The flight attendant spoke to the captain while somebody was blocking her path to the cabin. A few minutes later an announcement came on that we were diverting to Jacksonville.
Law enforcement removed the passenger from the flight when it landed.
Just last week, another dispute over a reclining airplane seat caused a flight from Miami to Paris to be diverted to Boston. Air marshals had to restrain a 61-year-old man who was fighting with the passenger in front of him over a reclining seat, which he said was hurting his knees. The man was arrested and charged with interfering with a flight crew.
Days before that, a United Airlines flight was diverted after a passenger used a device called a "knee defender" to stop the person in front of him from reclining.
The "knee defender" costs about $22. It attaches to the seat-back tray table and prevents the seat from reclining:
