Valid or ridiculous? Plane passenger's 8-hour position to stop seats reclining

Gary James was onboard the TUI flight from Mexico to Manchester last month [August 8] when he says another passenger 'slammed' his hands onto the seats in front to stop them from reclining.

The 31-year-old claims the man placed his hands there as soon as the flight took off and kept them in place throughout the duration of the eight-hour-long flight.

Video footage filmed by Gary shows the man with his hands pressed up against either side of the middle seat in front of him as he watches a film on the screen in the back of the seat.

He appears to deliberately angle his hands so that it covers all three seats in the row in front of him - which Gary believes left the occupants thinking their seats were broken.

Gary says the man only removed his hands from the seats to eat and would 'slam' them back into place whenever the three passengers in front attempted to recline.

The software engineer admits he wanted to tell the passengers on the front row about the man's actions, but was unable to because they were asleep for the majority of the overnight flight, which had departed from Mexico at approximately 8.45pm.

Since sharing a clip of the man's actions on TikTok the video has gone viral, racking up more than 5million views, likes, shares and comments.

The video left social media users divided - with some agreeing that the man was 'valid' for his actions, while others labelled his behaviour 'ridiculous'.

Gary, from Halifax, West Yorkshire, said: "As soon as the flight set off, the people in the front row tried to recline their seats and the guy slammed his hands on the back of the chair to stop them from reclining.

"I don't think they noticed, I think that they thought the chair was just broken.

"He just kept them there for the rest of the flight and every time that they tried reclining, he would slam them back into place.

"I wanted to tell the people on the front row but they were asleep for most of the flight so I didn't get chance.

"It must have been seven or eight hours that he kept his hands there.

"He didn't sleep, the only time he took it off was when he was eating."

But Gary believes that people should be able to recline their seat on an airplane if they have paid for a seat which allows them to do so.

Gary said: "It's shocking to me that people don't like reclining - especially on an overnight flight - it's a long flight from Mexico.

"The chairs aren't comfortable. You've paid for your seat so if the seat comes with a reclining feature then you should be able to recline in it in my opinion."

The video sparked debate on social media, with some users suggesting the passenger 'should have paid for business class', while others said he deserves a 'Nobel peace prize'.

One user commented: "This is ridiculous, if people don't want people to recline to this point they should just go in business class."

Another said: "He's an icon. Reclining is so disrespectful and if you have longer legs the person who does it will literally jam into your joints and put you in horrible pain. I will never understand how people do it, disgusting."

A third commented: "Valid honestly. Reclining seats causes more problems for everyone."

Another user wrote: "Nope. A reclining seat is a feature I PAID FOR. If you don't want the person in front of you to recline, pay extra to sit in the front."

Some else commented: "Get this man a Nobel peace prize."

Another person wrote: "If you weren't supposed to recline, they wouldn't recline would they. People need to get a grip."

Gary says he was left feeling 'shocked' after a number of the comments agreed with the man's actions.

Gary said: "I was shocked by some of the comments that agreed with him when I first posted the video.

"The majority of the comments sided with the guy, and it felt like I was in the wrong place.

"For me, if you can recline you should recline.

"Obviously don't recline when there's food out but if you want to recline on an airplane then recline is my opinion.

"After reading some of the comments I can agree with people saying [you should] ask, or if there's a tall guy behind you, fair enough you might have to take a bit of a hit on that reclining to help them out a bit.

"But the majority of the time I think you're fine to recline whenever you want."

TUI has been approached for comment.