It’s pretty typical for almost every passenger flying to an international destination to want to recline their seat.
And Stella wanted to do just that.
During an 8-hour flight to Spain, she and her sister were sitting in a two-seat section of the plane next to the window. They were flying alone for the first time – anxious to check out Spain all on their own.
After takeoff, the two college students decided to recline their seats.
Stella’s sister, Katie, pushed back her seat and went as far back as possible. She smiled, happy she was comfortable.
Simultaneously, Stella attempt to recline her chair, but it appeared stuck. She pushed back hard several times – the last time with all her might. The chair wouldn’t give.
Katie: “That’s funny, mine went back just fine.”
Stella: “At least one of ours did… can you help me push mine on three? I think it’s jammed.”
1… 2… 3…
“Uhhffffff!!” (Said a man with a deep, heavy voice).
Stella’s seat bounced right back forward.
Katie, confused at what could possibly be behind them, pulled her chair forward, too.
The two sisters sat facing forward like two little angels, as if nothing happened. They sat in silence for five minutes.
In whispering voices:
Stella: What the heck was that?
Katie: Want me to check?
Stella: Can you see?
Katie: Let’s peek through the seat gap…
Stella and Katie slowly began to investigate the situation, with half of each girl’s face pushed against the gap.
An extra-large man gave them an angry glare. The girls looked down and saw his huge stomach pushed up against the back of Stella’s seat.
Whoops!!
Jennifer Chan of Davis, California has been a flight attendant for 25 years with a major airline
“An airplane is filled with a lot of people in a very small amount of space, so these kinds of issues come up all the time,” Jennifer said. “People don’t want to share the space around them. Especially in this country, people are very particular about their personal space. And on an airplane, that personal space is extremely small, you have no control over it and all you have is your seat – nothing else.”
Jennifer has encountered instances of personal space violation throughout her career. She has dealt with people not wanting to share the space under their seat for luggage (not even for five minutes). She has also come across people fighting for overhead baggage space. And of course, she has met people not wanting to sit next to another for some specific reason.
“Yesterday I had a situation where I had to move a young mother and a girl so they could sit together,” Jennifer said. “A gentleman in the aisle said he’ll move, but another guy in the row didn’t want to sit by a child.”
Jennifer ended up moving the mom and girl to another row.
“At least I had an option to move them somewhere else,” she said. “Sometimes we don’t have that option, and that makes things difficult.”
Jennifer said that in general, the American population and airline industry has changed.
“Nobody says please and thank you anymore, and we’ve lost that sense of looking out for each other and just being polite,” she said.
“Also, seats are getting smaller, airplanes are getting narrower, and planes are more crowded than they ever were before,” Jennifer said. “I think that puts people on edge even more.
Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this short story, excluding interviews, are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
