Fight over legroom forces emergency landing
Airline passengers have come to expect one small luxury in the confined space of today's packed planes: the ability to recline their seat.
But when one passenger was denied that bit of personal space on Monday, it led to a heated mid-air argument and forced the unscheduled landing of their plane, just halfway into the flight.
The fight started because one passenger was using a Knee Defender, a $23 gadget that attaches to a passenger's tray table and prevents the person in front of them from reclining.
The gadget has since gone on to see a surge in sales to the point that the maker's web site crashed due to unprecedented levels of traffic.
Flight operator United Airlines said it prohibits use of the device, like many major airlines.
Some operators have even take the reclining mechanisms out of their seats, leaving them permanently upright.
The dispute on United Flight 1462 from Newark, New Jersey to Denver, Colorado escalated to the point where the airline decided to divert to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, according to Transportation Security Administration spokesman Ross Feinstein.
Chicago Police and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers met the flight, spoke to the passengers — a man and a woman, both 48 — and "deemed it a customer service issue," Feinstein said.
The TSA would not name the passengers.
The plane then continued onwards to Denver without them, arriving 1 hour and 38 minutes late, according to the airline's website.
The Federal Aviation Administration can impose a civil fine of up to $25,000 for passengers who are unruly.
However, in this case, no arrest was made, according to airport spokesman Gregg Cunningham.
The fight started when the male passenger, seated in a middle seat of row 12, used the Knee Defender to stop the woman in front of him from reclining while he was on his laptop, according to an official with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on anonymously because as not being officially authorised to speak.
A flight attendant had asked him to remove the device and he refused.
The woman then stood up, turned around and threw a cup of water at him, the official says.
At that point United decided to land in Chicago.
The two passengers were ejected from the flight.
Both of them had been seated in United's Economy Plus section, a part of the plane that already has an extra 10 centimetres of legroom than the rest of cabin.
News break – August 27
