#  I Just Flew. It Was Worse Than I Thought It Would Be.

     Details    McKay Coppins   ![logo](https://www.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         May 11 2020      [  ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/May-2020/039p.png)    ](https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/19752-i-just-flew-it-was-worse-than-i-thought-it-would-be)

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> **FIRST PERSON--**The cabin was restless. It was a weekday afternoon in late April, and I was among dozens of people boarding an airplane that most of us had assumed would be empty.

 Flight attendants were scrambling to accommodate seat-change requests. Travelers — stuffed shoulder to shoulder into two-seat rows — grumbled at one another from behind masks. An ominous announcement came over the in-flight PA system: “We apologize for the alarming amount of passengers on this flight.” Each of us was a potential vector of deadly disease.

I arrived at my assigned row, and found a stocky, gray-haired man in the seat next to mine. When I moved to sit down, he stopped me. “Sit there,” he said gruffly, pointing to the aisle behind us. “Social distance.” *(Photo above: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)*

Not eager for a confrontation, I decided to comply. Within seconds, though, a flight attendant materialized and ordered me back to my assigned seat. My recalcitrant would-be seatmate, vigorously objecting to this development, responded by blocking my entrance to the row with his leg.

A standoff ensued, with the irate passenger protesting that there were plenty of empty rows where I could sit (there weren’t) and the long-suffering flight attendant all but threatening to kick him off the plane (she didn’t). Finally, he relented and I squeezed awkwardly into my seat as the man muttered profanities under his breath.

Why did I think flying would be easy right now? [(Read the rest.)](https://medium.com/the-atlantic/i-just-flew-it-was-worse-than-i-thought-it-would-be-69f6ee12edf7)

-cw

  - [  Previous Article **Community Activists: Locked Down and Locked Out** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19753:community-activists-locked-down-and-locked-out&catid=312)
- [  Next Article **California Apartment Association, Once Again, Opposes Renter Protections** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19750:california-apartment-association-once-again-opposes-renter-protections&catid=312)
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