A FORBIDDEN seat on a plane has sparked huge debate among flyers who have been left baffled by the bizarre rule.
Croatia Airlines passenger Sven Wöste took to Facebook to share a picture of the unusual seat.
He wrote: “I was sitting in the last aisle of a Croatia Airlines plane on the window seat (31F).
“The seat next to me was free and had a notice stitched in the cushion that this seat has to stay unoccupied.”
The confused passenger added that when he asked a flight attendant why no one could sit in the seat, they told him that it had no seat belt.
But, this “made no sense” to Wöste who argued that the mounting for a seat belt was there and surely replacing a seatbelt is easier than stitching into a cushion.
Over 1,200 people in the Dull Men’s Club Facebook group took part in a lively debate in the comments about the permanently empty.
“Wonder if it’s for an extra flight attendant they may have to put on the plane last min?” one suggested.
“Probably like an extra emergency seat for an airline worker or someone that absolutely needs to be on the flight when it’s booked full,” another said.
“A lot easier to keep people out of a seat with no seatbelt, and they probably do have the extra belt stored on the plane to install if someone needs the seat.”
It is the “ejector seat,” a third joked.
Others noted how they now might keep an eye out for the window seat next to the forbidden one so they could have more room.
One wrote in the comments: “I would LOVE to have this seat next to me on most flights…I could finally sit without bumping elbows with the next person.”
But, none of these suggestions were correct.
Many cabin crew workers who saw the post explained the real reason for the seat and it is all to do with health and safety regulations.
One crewmember explained: “Aircrafts are certified considering many factors.
“One of them is the capacity to evacuate all passengers, using 50% of the exits, within 90 seconds.”
This means that while there is a capacity for 150 passengers on the plane, it is only certified with just 149 as only this number of people can evacuate the aircraft within the time limit.
If someone had taken the unoccupied seat, in order to fly following the regulations, there would have to be two more over-wing exits which is much more costly.
This has also been explained by Avioradar who had the theory confirmed by Airbus.
Meanwhile, a flight attendant has revealed why passengers should stop queuing for the plane bathroom even if they are desperate.
