Whether you're in first class or economy, a core rule of flying is that you have to have your seat in the upright position during both takeoff and landing.
This Federal Aviation Administration rule has been around almost as long as commercial flying has because a reclined position can block a passenger's escape in the case of an emergency and (the much more likely scenario) cause the passenger behind you to bump their head during turbulence.
Related: 'Blood and awfulness': Viral video of Delta flight captures extreme turbulence
As airlines are not allowed to take off when all seats are not in an upright position, both passenger refusal and a broken seat could cause a flight delay. The latter is what occurred when a JetBlue (JBLU) -) flight from New York's JFK to Los Angeles had to turn back around to the gate over a first-class seat that remained in the bed position.
'The seat wouldn't move from the bed position...'
As a passenger aboard the flight told to Page Six, Jax Taylor who rose to fame through the Bravo reality television series "Vanderpump Rules" was the passenger in the seat. The flight turned back around on the tarmac and was reportedly two-and-a-half hours late coming into LAX.
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While the fellow traveler said that Taylor was "throwing a fit" over the seat, a representative for the reality TV star said that the seat was broken and Taylor was trying to explain the situation to the flight attendant.
"The plane did not come back [to the gate] due to any uproar," the representative told Page Six. "His seat was in the bed position in first class, and the plane is unable to take off if it is not upright. [Taylor] was not able to sit in that seat. It was not working. It was not his fault that the seat wouldn’t move from the bed position."
The issue was eventually fixed and the plane was able to flying into Los Angeles with a delay of just over two hours. But the passenger who leaked Taylor's presence on the flight said that a dozen passengers transferring to Singapore and China had just "an hour to deplane and get to the other terminal before the doors closed."
Some Vanderpump fans are not buying the 'malfunctioning seat' explanation
Launched in 2013 as a spinoff of the "Real Housewives" franchise and running until 2022, "Vanderpump Rules" followed Lisa Vanderpump and her friends in running her restaurants across in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. One of the primary personalities throughout eight seasons, Taylor was let go in 2020 amid a series of scandals and fights with fellow cast members and producers.
Given Taylor's tendency for scandal, some fans of the show were not convinced by the representative's explanation of the malfunctioning seat.
"Everyone who has ever flown knows that no plane with a seat stuck in the 'laid down' or reclined position would EVER ever seat passengers in it and than [sic] begin take off," one Reddit user wrote alongside an Instagram story of Jax sitting in an upright position that was later deleted.
JetBlue could not immediately be reached for comment on the situation with the first-class seat.
