Man punches, chokes woman for reclining plane seat
Witnesses said man became upset after woman put her seat back (Shutterstock)
A California man has been charged with assault for allegedly punching and choking a woman after she reclined her seat on a flight.
Lawrence Wells, 54, of Richmond, California faces up to 10 years in prison over the October 18 incident that took place on board a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
According to the indictment, Wells assaulted the victim, identified only by her initials MD, choking her and punching her in the head with a closed fist shortly after the plane took off.
"Approximately 10 minutes after the flight left the ground, the captain of the aircraft declared an emergency landing and returned to Los Angeles International Airport where law enforcement ... responded to investigate the assault allegation," the FBI said in a statement.
Witnesses say Wells became upset after the woman put her seat back.
OK.. I must admit that I find people who recline their seats very irritating. There is no real room in cattle class and in my opinion , reclining seats should be done away with… What say you ?
I'm replacing the reclining seats with Recaros in my Pink Kia
mohdata: They dont have reclining seats.......... guess they dont have anything..... :)
She shoud have forgiven the gentleman ............. it is too tough for him ........ now ........
Jdqdfc: What about ryanair?
we have to inform Human rights, i guess
Don't fly, problem solved, too.
fly Ryanair.......... problem solved..... :/
Wow! I waited at boarding time, I did thousand works at home and after taking flight I cant recline my seat? Why? Arey!
Why cant people blame the greedy airlines who put 1000 seats in economy section instead of 500? Airlines work being inhuman and poor traveller suffers. I am tired and I wish to take nap. There is no leg space and no back space....so better let me stand for all time instead of that tiny narrow badly straightened seat na.
lol yup...get in the seat and recline it first thing...'i paid for this baby right here and i'll be damned if i didn't recline this baby right here...if i could, i'd takeoff, eat and land with it reclined, this baby right here'...lol sorry...yes yes out with recliners...
I'm like you.. Don't like to inconvenience the person behind.. so I don't recline. What i find irritating is when people don't care who or what is behind but the first thing they do is recline the seat.
This is why i believe that its better to get rid of recliners all together
being a tall fellow, its always been a problem for me...used to suffer even more because i wouldn't do the same to the person behind me...when he was around, i'd steal my dad's frequent flyer miles and upgrade, but now that i'm on my own, i just select the bulkhead seats when possible...but yes, selfishness and lack of consideration for others is the problem...
I have seen people irritating and fighting with cabin crew fir shiftng their luggage, I have seen people asking their wives to shift to other places becoz the next person is a male, I have seen people not shifting to their wives side even if they themselves r sitting with stranger ladies and wives want them to be with them, their are all kind of people travel.
He can't take the severe provocation ........... poor soul ...... indeed ..........
this is a real irritant during long journey.
we have to blame the airlines for making gap between seats so less to make more profit.
It seems he was disturbed by someone else in the recent past ......... so he can't bear more injust .....
He is 54 .......... How old is she ? ...........................
We need to be tolerant & try to adjust ....... it's matter of a few hours only ......... no need to do any change in seating style .......... .............