A woman has taken to social media to share her story of ‘assault’ from a man who repeatedly punched her plane seat when she reclined it.
Wendi Williams was flying on an American Eagle flight, a subsidiary of American Airlines, from New Orleans to Charlotte when the incident took place, and after giving the airline ‘every opportunity’ to ‘do the right thing’ she decided to take her grievances to Twitter.
In footage shared online, the unidentified male passenger could seen sitting directly behind Wendi, in the back row of the plane. The man was unable to recline his chair, so when Wendi pushed her chair back he retaliated by pummelling her seat.
See the altercation below:
Wendi claimed that prior to filming the video, the man had asked her to sit upright while he ate his dinner. She obliged, but reclined her chair again once he’d finished eating.
The male passenger then allegedly started ‘hammering away’ at her seat until she started filming him, at which point he ‘was still aggressive but nothing like prior to [the] videoing’.
Wendi called over a flight attendant, who appeared to take the side of the male passenger by ‘giving him rum’ and acknowledging it was ‘tight’ where he was sitting.
The attendant told Wendi to stop filming the scene, and later handed Wendi a ‘Passenger Disturbance Notice’.
Wendi described the man’s response as ‘assault’, and claimed she also experienced ‘threats’ from the flight attendant:
The frustrated passenger refused American Airlines’ request to send her contact information via DM, claiming she’d tried to deal with the situation ‘quietly’ on numerous occasions. She revealed she’d ‘lost time at work, had to visit a doctor, got x-rays, and [had] horrible headaches for a week’ as a result of the male passenger’s actions.
The social media user explained her anger, tweeting:
I have no respect for “men” who think punching a woman, through a seat or not, is defensible. AGAIN, it WAS punching, prior to the video. I posted this @AmericanAir and tried to get them to deal with their flight attendant and I wanted to deal with your boy on the ground, legally.
Wendi went on to explain the airline contacted her to apologise for the situation, though they ‘didn’t accept any responsibility for the flight attendant’s actions’.
An American Airlines spokesman told Mirror Online:
We are aware of a customer dispute that transpired on 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.
The frustrated passenger is now threatening to contact the FBI in order to find the man in the video and ‘press charges’.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.