The 'War of the Rows' continues on airplanes

You must have heard about the space invasions going on at 35,000 feet. I'm not talking about aliens entering airplanes through the air vents. I'm talking about passengers losing it when someone pushes their seatback into its fully reclined state and lands inches from the aft passenger's lap.

Just recently, territorial ownership over legroom has caused three airlines to divert flights and remove the feuding passengers.

The 'War of the Rows' isn't new. It's been going on ever since Reagan's days when the government deregulated the airlines. Many of the carriers went belly up because their bottom lines ended up in the red. So to increase profits, the airlines went after our 'bottom' lines. They made seats smaller and reduced legroom. They packed passengers in so tightly you couldn't scratch your nose without elbowing your seat partner.

What they didn't take away was the amount the seats tilt back. So when a passenger fully reclines his seat, he is practically lying in the lap of the aft passenger who is stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. And it has caused tempers to flare. On one flight, when a passenger fully reclined his seat, the aft passenger vented. Literally. He fully blasted his air vent on the man's bald head. The bald man did his own form of venting with some choice words and hand gestures often seen during rush hour.

Another frequent flier jams his briefcase against the back of the forward seat before it has a chance to recline. Often times, the recliner assumes his seat is broken and lets it go. Other times it can come to blows.

In 2003, one frequent flier invented the Knee Defender, a gizmo that locks onto the arm of a coach tray table and locks out a passenger inclined to recline in your face. Now, the $20 gadget is back in the news after a passenger using it on a flight from Newark, New Jersey to Denver battled it out with a passenger who was determined to take the flight lying down. When the argument escalated into a water fight, the flight diverted to Chicago. Rumor has it sales of the Knee Defender are going so gangbusters, it crashed the company's website – which goes to show the war is far from over.

Recently on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago, I was feeling a little spacey. It wasn't caused by a slow depression or a lack of food for several hours. It was caused by my seat assignment. I was seated in an exit row. Except for first class, these are the only rows on most planes where you won't be forced to study the dandruff on the head of the passenger in front of you when he reclines his seat into your lap. And here's why: Those seats have enough room to actually allow your size EEE wingtips to dance. And the row in front of you can't recline the seats because of FAA regulations.

So why don't airlines solve this simple problem? Either increase the floor space or eliminate reclining seats altogether. Passengers seated in the back row against a bulkhead or in a window-exit row have been conditioned to it and rarely complain.

Then we could work on the more serious problem of who gets to use the middle seat armrest.

• Gail Todd, a freelance writer, worked as a flight attendant for more than 30 years. She can be reached at gailtodd@aol.com.