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A video of passengers fighting on a flight over a reclining seat went viral on Wednesday, leading to a formal apology by the airline the next day.
The video shows a male passenger verbally arguing with an increasing number of men. Although a female crew member tries to calm down the agitated group, she backs down once the men become physically aggressive. As the passengers watch, the lone man tries to defend himself against the attack wave of the group of men around him.
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The Bangkok-Kolkata flight took place on Tuesday and the clip of the incident was uploaded by Saurabh Sinha on Wednesday. At the time of writing, the video has more than 3 million views and 6,200 likes.
Shortly after the video went viral, Thai Smile Airways issued an apology via their Indian Twitter account @THAImileIndia.
India’s Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Directorate General of Civil Aviation asked Smile Airways for details of the altercation, but the nature of the foreign airline and the state of registry, Thailand, raised a jurisdictional issue.
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The altercation took place after the lone male passenger in seat 37C refused to raise his seat in accordance with crew safety instructions as the plane prepared for takeoff, reports Times of India. Although crew members warned that the man’s actions would be reported to the pilot, the passenger reportedly justified his refusal with claims that he had back pain and urged the flight crew, responding, “OK, tell [the pilot]. I’m not afraid.” The passengers in seats 38A, B and C confronted the man about his behavior, which led to the physical brawl.
As a result, the flight was delayed, but “continued as usual” after the affected passengers calmed down, the airline reports. However, the passengers continued to be watched and passenger 37C was not served alcohol.
The passengers in 37A and B were given the option to switch seats, but declined. No one was injured, the airline said.
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