Caters/Fox NewsThe passenger behind the viral ‘recline-gate’ video has spoken out since the ordeal, and now is threatening legal action action against the airline.
Wendi Williams was on a flight from New Orleans to Charlotte when she decided to recline her seat – much to the dislike of the man behind her.
The man behind Williams was unable to recline his own seat, due to being on the back row, so decided to continuously punch the back of Williams’ seat in retaliation.
Williams has since been interviewed on Fox News where she spoke about the ordeal:
Recalling the incident that took place January 31, Williams said the man’s punches sent her ‘flying forward’.
Speaking to Fox News, she said:
I was leaving a teachers conference and we got onto the plane and the man behind me, as soon as we got in the air, I reclined and he asked me if I would put my seat back up while he ate, which I did.
About ten minutes later, he was done and I put my seat back down, at which point he started full-on punching the back of my seat really hard that I was flying forward.
Williams added she repeatedly tried to get the flight attendant’s attention, but she failed to come over.
Fox NewsWhen the flight attendant did eventually approach the pair, Williams described her as ‘anything but pleasant’.
Williams added:
I’m consulting with an attorney – he’s an aviation lawyer. He and I are going to sit down this week and decide what we want to do because I feel like I have been… the hits just kept on coming, figuratively and literally, from the guy and the flight attendant when she did finally come around.
[She] said, ‘What?’ And I said, ‘The guy behind me is repeatedly hitting me’ and she went back to him, like changed personalities, and was the kindest person in the world and said, ‘Oh, are you okay? It’s really tight back here. I’m sorry.’ And then she said to me, ‘Delete the video,’ and I thought, ‘Why would I delete the video?’
She added that the attendant threatened to remove her from the plane if she didn’t delete it, and handed her a ‘Passenger Disturbance Notice’ warning of federal prosecution.
You can watch the altercation take place here:
The airline have released a statement following the video going viral, saying they’re aware of the dispute and they’re looking into the issue.
The statement read:
We are aware of a customer dispute that transpired from American Eagle flight 4392, operated by Republic Airways on January 31.
The safety and comfort of our customers and team members is our top priority, and our team is looking into the issue.
While Williams received the same statement off the airline via email, she is yet to hear from the man in the video, but wants him to ‘come out of the woodwork’.
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Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.