Plane passenger's laptop destroyed after person in front reclines their seat

It's always the fear for any traveller - your tech being destroyed en route.

While most passengers make a happy landing, one man was crushed after his laptop was destroyed by a reclining seat.

It happened on a flight from Austin to LA back in 2020, with the passenger taking to Twitter after the incident.

Though it was an accident, film producer and podcaster Pat Cassidy admittedly was in free fall.

In a post on Twitter at the time, Cassidy wrote: “Small note for the suggestion box, maybe have a little warning sign or some way to prevent my laptop from being destroyed when the person in front of me reclines their seat."

Twitter/Pat Cassidy

In a follow up tweet, he added: "Also, this one is more of a critique than a suggestion. I really appreciate that your flight attendant came over to tell me that the passenger in front of me 'needs to be able to recline' and then asked him 'if he was okay?' as if your seat hadn't just ruined my livelihood." Ouch.

The post prompted a fair bit of debate among social media users about whether it's appropriate to ever fully recline your seat - particularly without warning.

Pexels

One person responded: “Isn’t it time to ban seat reclining?”

Others agreed, with another adding: “The problem with reclining seats on aeroplanes is in the design. Reclining made sense when the economy classes were roomy back in the day. That’s not the case today. Today short distance flights should either have limited recline, or the bottom of the seat should slide ahead.”

While a third commented: “People have got to be more considerate to check and ask before jumping to action seriously! Couldn't the person in front at least check, ‘hey I'm gonna recline my seat back.’"

Not everyone agreed though, with some travellers having a different train of thought.

One user said: “Nah bro this is your own fault. While I agree fully reclining is kinda a d**k move, they also have every right to.”

And another chipped in: “This is negligence and lack of due precaution on the part of the airlines. Passengers with a reclining seat should be able to do so at will. The seats and trays should be designed for adequate damping to not pose a danger to passengers and property.”

Someone else asked: “How do you know the person in front doesn't have a bad back and need the seat reclined?”

It seems there's no end to the arguments though, as the debate continues to take flight.