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People Say Passenger ‘Should Sent Straight To Jail’ As Photo Of In-Flight Screen Goes Viral
People on social media are calling for a plane passenger to be sent straight to jail, after other people on board noticed what he was watching in flight.
A photo taken mid-flight on the dimly lit plane traveling from Los Angeles to New York last week has been doing the rounds on the internet after everyone started highlighting the same issue.
The plane photo that went viral
The image in question was taken towards the back of the plane, showing all the passengers relaxing in their seats and watching the TV screens built into the back of the seats in front of them.
But what is immediately noticeable about the image is the fact that one particular passenger is watching something completely different to everyone else.
A social media user called Kyle shared the snap to X, on June 10, which just happened to be a very important day for sports, if you happen to be a fan of basketball.
The photo quickly started being shared, with more than 11,000 retweets, nearly 300,000 likes and nearly 2,000 comments – many of which were saying the same thing.
People on the internet react
Despite some pretty harsh comments online, saying the plane passenger must ‘hate life,’ to be watching something different using the ‘cheap a** earphones’ that are provided on planes, a lot of people were actually pretty supportive.
“He wants to be different so bad,” one commented, while another disagreed: “He’s the only living soul on that plane.”
A third wrote: “That guy has taste and a long flight ahead of him.”
“He should be sent straight to jail for not watching the most important game of the season,” a fourth quipped.
If you’re a basketball fan, you’ve probably already guessed what everyone was watching on June 10. Yep, it was the fourth game of the 2026 NBA finals, which saw the New York Knicks win against the San Antonio Spurs.
It’s probably not surprising that so many passengers had tuned into the game, with the Knicks trailing 29 points behind before going on to complete the biggest comeback in NBA finals history.
Not only that, the win gave the Knicks a 3 to 1 lead in the finals and put them one victory away from their first NBA championship since 1973, making it a pretty big deal for New Yorkers.
On June 13, the Knicks went on to beat the San Antonio Spurs once again, earning themselves the championship, and we’re sure plenty of people will have been watching that game while flying too.
whole plane watching the knicks game except for one dude watching avatar pic.twitter.com/VT8rk97ow9
— kyle (@kyle4prezident) June 11, 2026
Not everyone is interested in basketball
However, as one man on the flight to New York City proved, not everyone is interested in basketball, and some of us would rather kick back and relax with a movie instead.
Although one X user suggested there was an ulterior motive involved, writing: “Real flyers know this is the move. Watch the movie on your screen and watch the game from anyone else’s screen.”
Even Kyle, who originally shared the photo, admitted he had put Shrek on his own screen during the fourth quarter for luck, saying: “And it worked!” So, hey, maybe this plane passenger is to thank for the team’s success.
So, what was more interesting than the most important Knicks game in around 50 years? The man in question was actually watching Avatar. Honestly, fair play to him.
The 2009 sci-fi hit directed by James Cameron is probably up there was one of the biggest films of our generation, thanks to its groundbreaking visual effects.
Not only that, Avatar was the first film to ever gross more than $2 billion worldwide, surpassing Titanic as the highest grossing film in the world. After its re-releases, it has earned a total of around $2.9 billion worldwide, making it the highest grossing movie of all time.
So, while people might be judging this particular passenger for not watching the Knicks game, you really can’t knock him for his viewing choice, particularly since Avatar has won three Academy Awards.
One thing we’d love to know, however, is if this person was experiencing the magic of Avatar for the first time, in which case he probably didn’t quite feel the full cinematic effect on an airplane full of buzzing basketball fans.
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