Man repeatedly punches woman’s airline seat because she reclined it, sparking online debate

A man has provoked a serious debate on social media this week, after repeatedly punching the seat of the woman sitting in front of him seat on a plane after she reclined it.

Per The Metro, the incident occurred when teacher Wendi Williams was taking an American Airlines trip to a conference in New Orleans when she reclined her seat for a rest. She put back up again requested after the passengers were served their in-flight meals. But after tilting it back again, Wendi claims that the man became irate, and started hammering the back of her chair with his fists.

Take a look at the video of the punching below:

Whipping out her phone, Wendi recorded the incident and asked a hostess for help. She claims the hostess merely rolled her eyes and ignored her, passing the man his complimentary drink. Wendi alleges that she was informed that she should contact the FBI if she wanted to charge the aggressor with anything.

Wendi later shared the footage to her Twitter account, and captioned the post: "Here’s a great jackhole! He was angry that I reclined my seat and punched it about 9 times - HARD, at which point I began videoing him, and he resigned to this behavior. The other jackhole is the @AmericanAir flight attendant who reprimanded me and offered him rum! [sic]"

However, if Wendi was looking for sympathy, then she was somewhat disappointed. The video of the incident seemed to divide social media users, with some condemning the man for behaving so aggressively, with others criticizing Wendi for her perceived thoughtlessness and invasion of someone else's personal space while traveling.

For instance, one pro-punching-man commenter wrote: "EasyJet have removed recliner mechanisms from all plane seats & thereby removed more than 50% of issues between passengers. There is no need to recline a seat unless you are on a long-haul flight & the meal service is over. Reclining a seat into another persons face is just rude. [sic]"

Meanwhile, someone else in the other contrary camp wrote: "Complete rubbish. It's much more comfortable to recline your seat and they are designed in such a way that they do not affect the person sitting behind. I recline my seat 100% of the time and have no issue with people in front of me reclining the seat which they paid for. [sic]"

Per The Metro, an American Airlines spokesperson has responded to the video by saying:

"We are aware of a customer dispute that transpired on American Eagle flight 4392, operated by Republic Airways on January 31. The safety and comfort of our customers and team members is our top priority, and our team is looking into the issue."