We all know that, at times, flying can be stressful. From the rush to get to the airport in time to the hassles of security and finding the gate, tensions can be running at max by the time we eventually get to our seats.

However, here at Simple Flying, we believe in simple manners. There’s no need to ever ruin somebody else’s day just because yours isn’t going to plan. That’s a notion which is, apparently, completely alien to one particular United Airlines passenger, who was videoed having a crazy meltdown about being seated in the middle:

The blonde lady has some issues with the seat she’s been assigned. Admittedly both people in the aisle and window seat are larger individuals, but her attitude towards the situation is absolutely out of order.

‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this for the next four hours’

OK, so United economy isn’t known for having the most comfortable or the most generously proportioned seats, but surely you’d just ask a flight attendant quietly and respectfully if there are any spare seats on the flight? Not if you’re this particular piece of work, it seems.

‘They’re squishing me’

Loudly complaining on the phone, she blatantly shames her neighbouring passengers, letting everyone on the flight know how disgusted she is with the situation. At one point, she jokes,

‘At least they’ll keep me warm’

The person videoing this episode does not see the funny side of things. Not. At. All.

‘I eat salad, OK?’

The pinnacle of her rudeness is when she loudly exclaims that she eats salad. Not once, but twice she pronounces her dietary preferences, presumably to indicate she doesn’t think those other people know of the existence of green vegetables.

‘They’re both so big, I can’t even sit here’

She complains that she can’t breathe, that she’s squished and can’t take it. The blatant rudeness of this passenger is astounding, and yet United’s cabin crew do little to diffuse the situation.

‘I will not be verbally abused’

The lady filming is not at all happy about the way this woman is handling her business. Worse still, she’s a frequent flier, at one point exclaiming, ‘As a Platinum member, I don’t tolerate this sh*t from anybody’

Eventually the woman gets moved. It’s just a shame United didn’t move her to another flight, or perhaps into the waiting arms of airport security, in return for her shocking mistreatment of other paying passengers.

The response?

Since the video was posted on social media, it’s had a whole lot of views and stirred up a whole lot of opinions. Right now we’re looking at 11k comments and counting, most of which have come down on the side of the people sitting either side of our moaning madam.

But other’s thought she was right to complain. Several have commented that they wouldn’t be happy to sit there either, although the way she ‘fat shamed’ her neighbours was definitely not right.

Sadly, an awful lot of viewers have taken this issue as a racial slur against the two people she was sitting between. There’s really no need to make it anything more than what it was; simply a person who wasn’t happy with her seating but went about her complaint in entirely the wrong way.

At the end of the day, it’s the chance you take when you book a seat on a regular, economy flight. If you’re concerned about being seated in the middle and are uncomfortable with that eventuality, surely you’d pay to assign a window or aisle seat before you fly?

We reckon Lauren Lo hit the nail on the head: