The "Knee Defender" gadget has caused a United Airline's flight from Newark to Denver to divert to the Chicago's O'Hare airport on August 24, 2014. The device is two plastic clips that are inserted close to the hinge of the airline seat flip tray when down, and prevents the person in front from reclining. Two 48 year-olds, one a male and the latter a female, got in a dispute when the female passenger told the male passenger to remove his device, got a flight attendant to tell him to remove it again and he still did not comply. It ended with the female passenger throwing water in the other passenger's face and both of them getting kicked out of the plane. They were met by Chicago authorities but were not arrested. The airline stated on its behalf, that it does not allow the use of the device onboard. The dispute took place in the Economic Plus section, which has 5 inches more legroom then regular coach seats.
This opens the question on whether this incident should have been an actual problem, but it was and has been for awhile actually. Initially my thoughts were "How ridiculous that a whole plane had to be stopped for something so trivial", but with further reading this is not the first argument over seat reclining that has ended up with the plane stopping. The article further continues to another link which argues "Should the Knee Defender be banned?" and openly asks others their opinion on the matter. The article was written straight-forwardly and has concrete language. The purpose is solely to inform on the incident.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/26/travel/united-flight-knee-defender/index.html
No comments:
Post a Comment