Did a comfortable flight make a woman forget etiquette? Video from a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Moscow shows a heated confrontation that began shortly after takeoff, when a woman stretched her legs over the headrest of the passenger seated in front of her after the seat was reclined.
Passengers present on the flight said that the woman (who was allegedly Russian) became visibly angry and responded by resting her feet on the seatback and repeatedly shaking the seatback. The deliberate action forced the passenger in front to crouch forward while attempting to work on a laptop. At one point, the woman was seen clapping her shoes together above the other passenger’s head, which made others on the flight complain about the gesture as “discomfort class.”
When the woman was confronted, she claimed to have valid reasons for her poor conduct.
According to The Sun, one passenger on the flight said, “This is business class.” Another woman added, “This could only happen in Russia.” Meanwhile, the passenger in front later vented her frustration, saying: “As the saying goes, you can take a person out of the dirt, but the dirt doesn’t come out of the person.” The woman reportedly continued to ignore all the comments and requests to move her feet.
One male passenger said efforts to reason with her were unsuccessful. “They tried again and again to persuade her to move her legs, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to fly like this. People were going mad,” he said.
The argument lasted for about 10 to 15 minutes before the cabin crew of Qatar Airways finally convinced her to listen to them. The incident eventually ended when the aisle-seat passenger lowered her legs, bringing the in-flight chaos to an end.
Qatar Airways was established in 1993 and is fully owned by the government of Qatar. Usually, seats on the flight are comfortable and provide extensive legroom. Complimentary seat selection is available on higher fare types.
This is not the first time the popular airline has grabbed headlines for a controversy. Last year in April, 33-year-old Swetha Neerukonda, from North Carolina, sued Qatar Airways after a flight attendant served her daughter a large bar of KitKat.
The toddler reportedly suffered a major allergic reaction after she ate the chocolate, according to a $5 million lawsuit. It was filed on October 31 in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
The incident occurred on April 9 during a flight from the U.S. to India via Doha. The cabin crew was reportedly careless despite Swetha’s warning them about her child’s dairy and nut allergy.
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The toddler reportedly suffered life-threatening anaphylaxis, requiring her mother to administer an EpiPen mid-flight. The crew failed to assist the child in time, and after landing, the child was treated by paramedics and later admitted to the ICU for two days following a second allergic reaction.
Attorney Abram Bohrer, who looked after the lawsuit, said, “A mom should be able to trust that a flight attendant could keep an eye on her child for a few minutes. This is a young child who, through no fault of their own, ends up attached to all these cables, wires, [and] needles. It’s beyond bizarre. It’s unforgivable.”
