Gadget Prevents Plane Seats From Reclining

AP via Excite News ^ | Oct 24, 2:00 PM (ET) | BRAD FOSS

[leadpencil1]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Every cramped air traveler may have the right to lean his seat back, but Ira Goldman sees airplane justice from another perspective - that of the person behind - and he's found a way to even the score.

Goldman invented the Knee Defender, a beeper-sized block of plastic that lets passengers prevent the seat in front of them from reclining.

The gadget, which went on sale about a month ago on the Internet for $10, has sparked heated debate in online chat rooms, and aviation officials worry about the disagreements that will be generated at 30,000 feet.

Alison Duquette, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the product violates no FAA regulations, so it would be up to individual airlines to prohibit it.

Northwest Airlines (NWB) said it will ban the Knee Defender from all flights. Other carriers, such as American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, acknowledged concerns about safety - not to mention the comfort of passengers who want to recline - but are still figuring out what to do.

The safety concerns stem from the design, because the Knee Defender works only when the tray table is down. The hard plastic block, which has an inch-wide groove down the middle, fits around the arm of a tray table and acts as a barrier to the seat's backward movement.

"We have tested this product on several seat types and find that when installed, should someone try to force the seat to recline, the tray table assembly can break," said Mary Stanik, a Northwest spokeswoman. "If the seat is damaged, including the tray table, in flight, it may adversely affect passenger evacuation in the event of an emergency."

Goldman said he would stop selling the product if the airlines prove it unsafe, but so far he's unmoved by their arguments. The 50-year-old Washington, D.C., resident, who's 6-foot-4, said he didn't invent Knee Defender so fliers would be able to "hog scarce space," but rather for the physical well-being of tall travelers like himself.

"If I hadn't been bashed in the knees over and over again, this wouldn't have been invented," said Goldman, who estimated that nearly 1,000 Knee Defenders have been ordered. At the very least, he said the device could be a useful "early warning system" for long-legged fliers or people using laptops, enabling them to ask the passenger in front not to recline.

"Be polite to fellow passengers," says a sticker affixed to each Knee Defender.

Kevin Gross of San Francisco, who ordered a Knee Defender but hasn't yet used it, said he would immediately remove the device if asked to by a passenger or flight attendant. But Gross is betting it'll go undetected in most cases, since travelers will just assume the seat is busted and not make a fuss.

Don't count on 50-year-old Dan Hammer of White Plains, N.Y., to be so docile.

"If I saw somebody that put the Knee Defender on the seat behind me so that I can't go back, I'll be very upset," Hammer said.

That's just the kind of high dudgeon that worries Dawn Deeks, a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants.

After all, flight attendants already often ask passengers not to lean back too far, and they would be the ones to police any disputes.

To Deeks, the Knee Defender is "an insensitive knee-jerk reaction to insensitive people" that would only inflame tempers.

[leadpencil1]

Do I have this straight? You can prevent someone from reclining in front of you, but you can recline yourself? Somebody's cruisin' for a bruisin'.

I never recline. But I could if I wanted to, unless there was someone like me sitting behind me :-)

[AxelPaulsenJr]

As has been already mentioned, you can ask for an front row aisle seat. By the way, do you recline your seat?

[Final Authority]

I was on a commuter flight out of Newark, I am 6'4" and this Black woman, very large, takes the seat in front of me and asks for assistance to fasten her seat belt. This flight is full so I can not change seats. The attendant had to get a seat belt extender, then two extenders, then she had to ask the captain if this passenger could sit in a reclining position during operations because she was so large that she could not fit in the pitch of the seat. I paid $550.00 for this short flight. The flight was delayed, I suspect that the pilot had to take the issue to a supervisor and I was miserable for the hour plus. If it wasn't true I would never believe it. I tried to prevent her from reclining using my knees but she won the battle.

[theDentist]

Hmmm... you gotta arrive an hour earlier for security checks (ok),
you can't smoke while you wait to board your plane (which will be delayed for who knows why),
your bags are looted for small valuables by baggage handlers,
your one carry-on won't fit in the overhead
your seat is too small
you still can't smoke (especially since they confiscated your lighter and matches)
the food is mediocre
and now the person behind you can keep you from leaning back in your chair?

I foresee air marshalls stopping fist-fights mid-flight too!

[leadpencil1]

As has been already mentioned, you can ask for an front row aisle seat. By the way, do you recline your seat?

Front row or bulk head seats are the worst for leg room. I never recline my seat unless the seat behind me is empty. It always feels like I'm sticking the back of my head in some poor unfortunate persons face.

[TexasGunLover]

I would do my best to break your friggin knees, if I should ever be so unfortunate to be seated in front of you.

Somehow I doubt that. Sounds like you're suffering from Short Man's Syndrome. I'll pray for you since it must be horrible to want to be so cruel to another human being.

[dirtboy]

Had to laugh when I saw this. At 6'7", I have and use my very own built in "Knee Defender" and have many a good story to tell. Once someone tries to recline their seat and can't (because my knees are holding it upright), they never try again for the rest of the flight.

I have the exact same problem, as I am also 6'7" - one time I had the person in front of me repeatedly try to get his seat to recline, and then he paged the flight attendant and told her that his seat was broken. She glaned back at me and told him "No, it isn't" and that was that.

I had a flight back from Mexico City once. I had caught the usual affliction the night before despite my best efforts, but by the time I got to Houston for the connecting flight home I was better. I had an aisle seat in the very rear of the plane, and had a distraught woman come up to me and ask if I'd trade seats with her, as she was six weeks pregnant and she got motion sickness as soon as the plane started moving. I agreed, went to her window seat further up in the plane and discovered that, of the four biggest men on the plane, I was one and two of the others were in the same row. We were squeezed in so tight that we had to coordinate our movements to shift position and I had my face pressed against the window for almost the entire flight. But, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished...

[alaskanfan]

And you sir, are welcome to it.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Somehow I doubt that. Sounds like you're suffering from Short Man's Syndrome. I'll pray for you since it must be horrible to want to be so cruel to another human being.

Well thank you. But really, how cruel is it for this guy not to want to let me recline my seat the all of two to three inches that the seat will go back?

Get a friggin life, and stop being so selfrighteous.

[leadpencil1]

I suppose it could reach a point where the pain isn't worth it, but it would take a very large person who pushed extremely hard. Sorry about your bad flight.

[dirtboy]

However I think your behavior is very rude.

Dude, I am the same height as leadpencil. When I fly coach, my legs are SOLIDLY wedged into the back of the seat in front of me. There is simply no other place for my legs to go. Nothing rude about it, except for the reaction of folks like you who somehow expect me to saw three inches off my legs so YOU can recline.

[leadpencil1]

I had the person in front of me repeatedly try to get his seat to recline, and then he paged the flight attendant and told her that his seat was broken. She glaned back at me and told him "No, it isn't" and that was that.

That is the usual sequence of events, for sure.

[TexasGunLover]

Well thank you. But really, how cruel is it for this guy not to want to let me recline my seat the all of two to three inches that the seat will go back?

If I decided to crack you over the head in public with a chair because it made me feel more comfortable would you be happy about it?

Respect other people. If the seat behind you is empty, feel free to recline. Otherwise, be respectful of others.

[Lazamataz]

I will kill, with the box cutter I routinely smuggle on to flights, the very first infidel I see using this depraved technology of the Great Satan.

ALLA AKBAR!

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

This gadget has been strongly supported by travel columnist Charles Leocha (at "ticked.com"- check the recent archives). He has gotten some amazing emails about it- all but threatening him with death for spreading the word about this thing.

As for the flight attendants "policing" who can recline their seat, and by how much, I have been flying for a hell of a long time and I have NEVER seen this happen. At best the FA retreats to the galley and stays out of the fray.

[MineralMan]

"You have been fortunate so far. However I think your behavior is very rude."

Not really. If his legs are so long that they prevent his sitting with seat in front of him reclined, then he has every right to keep his knees where they are.

Personally, I'm so annoyed by passengers reclining in front of me (I'm also tall) that I absolutely never recline my own seat. That 5 degrees of relining does almost no good whatever, in any case.

What's even worse, though, is the reclining passenger who keeps pushing back, harder and harder, as if the seat will recline any further. On one flight, a huge fat man in front of me pushed so hard that the seat back broke and the seat crashed back onto me.

Fortunately, I stopped it before I got injured, and there was another seat for both of us.

If you can't sit for a few hours without that 5-degree incline, buy first class. I wish the airlines would simple lock all the seats upright.

[Admin Moderator]

Knock it off.