Airlines Must Remove Reclining Seats
Well, it happened for the third time in a matter of weeks: planes forced into emergency landings by passengers fighting over reclining seats.
First it was a 25 Aug 2014 flight from Newark, N.J., to Denver which was diverted to Chicago after a man prevented the woman seated in front of him from reclining her seat by using a $21.95 gadget called a Knee Defender. A flight attendant asked him to remove the device, he refused, the woman then stood up, turned around and threw a cup of water at him, and then hilarity ensued.
Then on 29 Aug 2014 on a Paris-bound flight from Miami a passenger became enraged after the woman in front of him reclined her seat. The plane was diverted to Logan Airport.
And just this past Tuesday (2 Sep 2014) on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to West Palm Beach, Fla.,a woman was trying to recline her seat while the other passenger was trying to sleep on the tray table. The woman who was trying to sleep started screaming and demanded that the plane land - it was diverted to Jacksonville where the unruly woman was removed from the plane.
While airlines instruct us on how to deplane in the unlikely event of an emergency, they fail to give flight passengers instructions on reclining seat safety. For example, passengers should be taught to take a second and look behind before reclining one's seat to make sure no one is eating on the tray:
What I find annoying is passengers who ignore announcements asking them to put their seats upright when meals are being served.
But the real problem is that airlines have been putting too many seats in economy class so that there is very little room left when a passenger reclines.
Some airlines are attempting to ameliorate the problem of less knee space by redesigning the seats. Alaska Airlines shrank the size of tray tables, and United moved the magazine pocket, getting it away from passengers’ knees.
There are only three solutions:
- Leave plenty of room between seats.
- Install seats that slide within a shell, that is, they do not impact the space of the passenger behind the seat. No knee-bruising or head bashing.
- Or simply avoid installing reclining seats at all, as is the case with Spirit and Allegiant Air, the only U.S. airlines to install seats that don’t recline.
Things will only get worse as airlines cram more and more seats into less and less space. Hell, I've even heard Muslims complaining that when the seat in front of them reclines, there's not enough room to open one's vest and pull out the detonator.
