It was not the fact that he was asked to give up his seat on a JetBlue Airways plane on behalf of a flight attendant that appears to have upset Gokhan Mutlu so much. It was the alternative seat he was offered - in the toilet.
Mutlu has lodged a $2m (£1m) lawsuit in a Manhattan court complaining that he was told to "go hang out" in the toilet and made to sit there for up to three hours of a five-hour flight from San Diego to New York. Not only did he suffer "extreme humiliation", the legal papers say, but he was also subjected to "tremendous fear" and danger as he was left in the closet without a seatbelt.
The legal action has so far been met with a resounding no comment from JetBlue, a low-cost airline that prides itself on its relatively new fleet of planes and efficient service. That is not how Mutlu describes his experience in the court papers.
He was travelling on February 16 on a JetBlue "buddy pass" that allows friends of the airline's employees to travel on standby. The flight was full, but he was allowed on after a flight attendant agreed to sit in one of the "jump seats" used by employees.
Ninety minutes into the flight Mutlu was told the flight attendant was uncomfortable in the jump seat and would be taking his seat instead. According to the lawsuit, he was pointed towards the toilet.
When he protested, the pilot came back and told him "he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command, that [Mutlu] should be grateful for being on board". He was left in the toilet even during turbulence, without a seatbelt, breaking federal laws, the legal papers say.
He was later allowed to return to his original seat, but evidently not quickly enough to prevent him seeking revenge through the courts.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
