As most of you can tell (or have guessed), I love airplanes. Not only is air travel essential for my line of work, I enjoy flying and being on planes – most of the time. Air travel certainly is not what is used to be. I can’t help but notice that every time I board a plane it seems like the seats become a little smaller and the space between your seat and the seat in front of you diminishes. And if the person in front of you wants to recline, you’re toast.

This past Sunday, the space (or lack thereof) between the seats is exactly what started a huge dispute between two passengers. On a United Airlines flight from Newark to Denver, a man in a middle seat installed the Knee Defender (click here to check out the device). After the flight attendant asked him to remove the device, he refused. The woman seated in front of him then turned around and threw water at him. The pilot diverted the flight to Chicago and kicked both passengers off the flight.

Josh Barro had one of the best articles about the incident on Wednesday in the New York Times. Barro argues that Mr. Knee Defender not only instigated the fight, but also “usurped his fellow passenger’s property rights” because when you buy an airline ticket you are buying the “right to use your seat’s reclining function.” If the passenger wanted so badly for the seat in front of him not to recline, Barro suggests that he should have paid her to give up that right like you do when you ask somebody else to give up a right.

So here is a mini #FabDebate. Does a passenger have a “property” right to recline his/her airline seat? Further, what do you think of the knee defender?