Originally Posted by
jetBlueNYFL
I think the best was when the row in front of the first exit and the first exit row reclined above 10,000 feet. During takeoff and landing, the rows were locked, and the FA released them at the appropriate time.
Why did the FAA implement the new regulation!? The other seemed to have work just fine!
Agreed. Interestingly, there was recently (about 6-8 months ago), an article in the Economist about airplane safety demonstrations and the complete inapplicability of the recommendations in the event of a real emergency. It would be too morbid to cite specifically what the article (which is written as a satire of a pre-take-off safey announcement) says, but the point is that the 10,000ft rule was sufficient to satisfy the necessity that the seats would not impede passengers' ability to exit the aircraft in the event of an emergency where such an exit would actually be useful.