It finally happened.

So this finally happened. Emergency landing a plane over a couple bits of plastic and a cup of water seems a bit extreme to me (and the only people I really feel sorry for are the delayed fellow passengers of the offenders). I've written previously about how unreasonable people are when it comes to spending a few hours in the air and don't expect anything to change short of a mandatory dose of Ativan for all passengers before take-off.

I'm sure you'll be surprised to know that I have a strong opinion about the Knee Defender. I think it should be banned outright (and on most airlines it is). Most of us know what we are getting into when we fly and I think the Knee Defender is pathetically passive-aggressive and downright selfish.

I would also like to know why tall people get the monopoly on flight discomfort? I'm not particularly tall or large - I'm pretty much exactly average, so I accept that certain aspects of flying are more comfortable for me than others. But. I do get bad lower back pain - particularly when I stand or sit in the same place for long periods of time. On long-haul flights (and I do a lot of 8+ hour flights) I need to put my seat back just as much as the 6'4 guy behind me needs more leg room.

I think I'm a pretty conscientious flyer; I tend not to put my seat back on short-haul flights and I always put my seat up for meal service - but I do firmly believe that should I choose, the right to recline my seat is irrefutably included in the price of my ticket. From a purely logical stand-point, it is difficult to argue that an action that actively interferes with the design of someone else's seat trumps that of a person using their own seat as it was designed.

I'm not going to suggest that tall people either don't fly at all or fly business class; flying is frequently the only way to get from A to B and if flying business class was affordable, we'd all be doing it. I guess what I am trying to say is, can't we all keep our hands (and seats) to ourselves, have a drink and be miserable together?