Woman sparks debate after documenting flight with passenger who ‘invaded her personal space’
Topics: TikTok, Travel, Plane Etiquette
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@sterlingsavannah
Topics: TikTok, Travel, Plane Etiquette
Frequent flyers will be more than familiar with the sheer joy of discovering you've secured yourself a window seat on an aeroplane - even if you might have paid a little extra to get it.
But if you're like me, and refuse to give Ryanair the satisfaction of another tenner on top of the extortionate price of carry-on luggage, you hope and pray upon receiving your boarding pass that you're either sat in seats A or F.
We all know there's quite literally NOTHING worse that landing yourself a middle seat and feeling unable to spread out throughout the duration of the flight.
And not only does the beloved window seat give you a better opportunity to sleep by propping your head against the wall of the plane, but it also removes you from the hustle and bustle of the aisle seat.
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On top of this, the window seat is the prime position to observe the beautiful surroundings from above as your approach your holiday destination.
This week, however, one TikTok user has gone viral after showing off one of the biggest downsides of securing a window seat and having her personal space invaded by a middle seater.
The woman, named Sterling - who goes by the username @steringsavannah on the video-sharing app - captioned the TikTok, 'Only option was to stare out the window', before the clip accumulated over 4.7 million views.
In the video - seemingly filmed upwards from Sterling's lap - sees her looking out of the window before the gentleman sat beside her in the middle seat leans across her at an extremely close proximity to take pictures out of the plane's small window.
The gentlemen's hands remain just inches away from the woman's face during the 44 second video, and remains facing towards her direction the entire time.
"Do people not know personal space?" she wrote over the video. "And that you can choose a window seat??"
The video has since sparked a huge debate online, with many siding with Sterling's belief that she was indeed having her space invaded.
"I don’t understand how someone could not speak up in a situation like this", one viewer wrote.
Another added: "It’s very important to be able to advocate for ourselves when someone is making us uncomfortable."
"I would’ve closed the shade and stared into his soul. We would’ve corrected that behavior before descent," a third jibed.
Other viewers, however, do not believe the gentleman in question was doing anything wrong in taking photos out of the window, with several pointing out that there are only a handful of window seats available on the flight.
"I’d say that filming him without consent is also invading his personal space. He is just taking a few pictures. Ofc it would have been more polite for him to ask for an okay but," one viewer hit out.
A second went on: "This has been me a couple times. I dont mind at all. Seat windows are always taken up by the time u book most of the time or extra. And as a human I get wanting to admire the amazing view and wanting".
"Aww I lowkey feel bad for him", a third continued.