On the flight to Houston from Atlanta I witnessed plane rage for the first time. A man who boarded halfway through the boarding process sat up front but he had to stow his carryon bag a few seats behind him on the plane. Once we landed and taxied in, many passengers got up from their seats while the man made his way towards the back to retrieve his bag. The trouble started when he was on his way back up to his seat. He said excuse me to another man standing in the aisle to get past him but the guy wouldn't budge and said to him, "Just wait, none of us are going anywhere till they let us out." "But I just went back there to get my bag," he explained. Nevertheless the man obstinately refused to let him by. This prompted him to call to his friend up front saying, "I need your help, take my bag," and he angrily shoved his bag over the blocking man's shoulder into his friend's waiting hands while bumping the guy on the shoulder. Then without pause he shoved his own way past the man blocking him who tried to resist but he shoved him off balance and the guy almost landed in someone else's lap. Next came a round of loud cussing between the two men using the "F" word then things died down because the line had now started to move towards the plane's exit. No further escalation occurred after the heated exchange. The flight attendants either didn't want to get involved or were unaware of anything happening. Only the other passengers in the area myself included saw and heard everything and we were very surprised and disapproving about the behavior we had just witnessed.
I don't understand why this plane rage happened. We only had a slight departure delay from ATL maybe only ten minutes. Once in the air there was some air turbulence but nothing too scary although the captain did cancel the in flight services for refreshments and snacks. Upon our arrival into Houston airspace towards the end of our flight there was another slight delay. The captain made another announcement that we would have to go into a holding pattern due to storm activity in the area but that delay turned out to be very brief, only for about five minutes then we landed. I suppose plane rage and road rage happen for the same reasons. It's really about what's going on in someone's life and not really about the inconvenience that someone else causes you -even if they are rude. Both parties on that plane acted unreasonably towards each other. Even though one of them started the trouble things did get a little violent and that was uncalled for.
