This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

With a pandemic receding, I'm excited to get back out into the world,

but I'm really not excited about getting back on an airplane. The seats are too small, I hate

waiting in line, and in my opinion people who lean back in their airplane seats

are history's greatest monsters.

Every year, fights break out between people who lean back on airplanes

and people who get their knees smushed. A man apparently got upset when the woman in front of him suddenly reclined her seat.

That's when the man allegedly reached forward and started choking the other passenger.

So the woman stood up and threw a cup of water in his face.

The man started punching her seat repeatedly as the video shows.

Sometimes planes have to be grounded because of these fights and the reason for these fights is confusion.

Think about it. Both people paid for a seat on the airplane, but who owns the space behind the seat back?

Essentially it's battling stories. Who owns the space behind the Z-Bak?

Essentially, it's battling stories.

The person who's sitting in front,

they've got the button, and they're basically saying,

look, it's attached to something I own.

If I can lean back into it, it's mine. The person in back says,

wait a minute, possession, I'm possessing a space, I'm using it for my knees, I'm using it for my

laptop, and when you lean your seat back into my space, that's trespass.

And that ambiguity actually is deliberate.

Airlines are doing that in order to be able to sell that same space twice.

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