‘The hits just kept on coming’: Woman at centre of seat recline debate speaks out

‘I was flying forward,’ says passenger Wendi Williams

Wendi Williams, the passenger at the centre of the reclined plane seat debate, spoke about her experience yesterday.

Ms Williams, who filmed a male passenger sitting behind her on a recent flight repeatedly “punching” the back of her seat, appeared on Fox News.

Footage from the incident, which occurred on an American Airlines flight from New Orleans to Charlotte, North Carolina, has sparked a fierce debate over whether plane passengers have the right to recline their seat.

It shows a man repeatedly banging the back of Ms Williams’ seat, which shakes violently as a result.

Ms Williams has claimed the incident amounts to “assault” and has said she wants the flight attendant onboard fired.

She told Fox News that as soon as the plane was in the air, she reclined her seat – but that the man behind asked her if she could put her seat back up while he ate, which she said she did.

“Ten minutes later I put my seat back down,” Ms Williams said. “At which point he started full-on punching the back of my seat really hard. I was flying forward.”

She claims that she tried unsuccessfully to get the flight attendant’s attention, so instead started videoing his “poking”.

But the footage shows behaviour that “was nothing compared to what he was doing prior”, she said.

Ms Williams added that she was consulting with an aviation lawyer about what she should do next.

“The hits just kept on coming, literally and figuratively.”

She finished by saying she hadn’t heard from the un-named man in the video, but hoped that he would “come out of the woodwork”.

A spokesperson for American Airlines previously told The Independent: “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.”

The issue of whether passengers have the right to recline their seat has long been a controversial one.

According to an Independent Twitter poll, which had more than 2,500 votes, the majority – 37.6 per cent – said reclining your seat was “a bit rude but allowed”.

The results were then almost evenly split between being “absolutely” fine and “unacceptable”, with 33.1 per cent and 29.3 per cent of votes respectively.

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian has since said that passengers should ask before reclining their seat.