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There's danger in reclining your airline seat: Your flight could need an escort

Airlines surely have known for years how uncomfortable they have made the coach sections of their airplanes by packing in seats with virtually no room to move once you're in one. While they love to promote the comforts of business and first class, it was inevitable that we would some day report on exactly the kind of air-rage incident that no leg room in coach caused on a United flight from Washington Dulles to Accra, Ghana, in West Africa.

Not long after takeoff, two men got into a fistfight when one reclined his seat into the face of the other. In a response typical of what airline pilots apparently beileve is the prudent response these days to all upsetting incidents, the United captain began dumping fuel over the Atlantic to lighten his load, and returned to Dulles. The Boeing 767 jet, one of the more cramped models any airline can fly, was escorted by two Air Force F-16 fighters because of fear, of what, we're not sure. Read more about the saga here ....   And, by the way, no arrests were made.