3 flights in 10 days: 'Legroom' wars result in US flights being diverted

In a span of less than ten days, three flights in the US had to be diverted for the same reason: flyers losing their temper over reclining seats. On Monday night, a third flight had to abandon its flight plan and divert because two passengers got into a row over legroom between seats. [caption id=“attachment_1695507” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] A Delta flight, travelling from New York to Palm Beach, had to divert and land in Jacksonville as a woman tried to recline, but the woman sitting behind her was sleeping with her head on the tray table. An argument between the women ensued and snowballed into a full blown fight, according news reports. “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,” said Aaron Klipin, a fellow passenger, told News 4 . When the flight landed in Jacksonville, the agitated woman was escorted to a police station and interviewed. She was later released. On Sunday, an American airlines flight flying to Paris from Miami had to turn back due to the same reason. A woman tried to recline her seat and the passenger sitting behind her was a tall Frenchman who got very angry . When the two got into an argument, the flight attendant tried to sort out the issue but the Frenchman, Edmond Alexandre, grabbed her hand. This led to the air marshals travelling on the flight to intervene and the flight landed in Boston. Alexandre was charged with interfering with a member of the flight crew,  according to a report . In another flight, there was a tussle thanks to a device that is frowned upon in American flights — the knee defender. The device has two plastic clips which are fastened to the tray table on the seat in front to prevent it from reclining. So last Wednesday, on a United Airlines flight from Newark to Denver, a 48-year-old man attached his knee defender to the seat in front of him. When the woman sitting in front of him asked him to remove it, he refused even after the flight attendants asked him to, according to news reports . The woman got up and threw a glass of water at him. The captain decided to land in Chicago and both the passengers were removed, according to USA Today . Twitterati expectedly were very amused by these incidents. Here is what some of them had to say: