to another jetliner and arrived in San

A Southwest Airlines jetliner was forced to return to the gate at Los Angeles International Airport Sunday without taking off after a fight between passengers that was allegedly sparked by seat reclining.

Airport police officer Rob Pedregon said that San Francisco-bound Flight 2010 left the gate at about 10.25pm Sunday.

About 15 minutes later, when the aircraft was on the taxiway, police got a call about a disturbance on board.

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Flight brawl: A Southwest Airlines jetliner (pictured) was forced to return to the gate at Los Angeles International Airport Sunday after a man allegedly began choking a woman for reclining her seat

The plane was ordered to return to the gate. The FBI took over after the flight was recalled.

The aircraft, a Boeing 737-300, was carrying 137 passengers on board at the time of the incident.

According to eyewitnesses interviewed by NBC News, one of the travelers attempted to recline her seat back just before takeoff, sparking an altercation with a man seating directly behind her.

The male passenger allegedly began choking the woman in front of him, prompting her to call for help.

Shortly after, the pilot notified the control tower that because of a physical altercation between two passengers, he was turning the plane around and returning to the LA airport.

Southwest Airlines later released a statement saying the plane had to be turned around due to a 'rapidly escalating situation.'

Passengers reported seeing the man who allegedly attacked the woman removed from the flight by police and detained.

Indeed, legroom and selfish passengers reclining the second the seatbelt light has gone off has long been considered one of the biggest annoyances of air travel.

So much so that some enterprising entrepreneurs have come up with ingenious ways of trying to prevent passengers from being able to recline at all.

One such invention is the Knee Defender, created by 6ft 2ins Ira Goldman, from the US, who had become exasperated by people cramping his space on flights at his expense.

Biggest gripe on a plane: The Knee Defender - billed with the tagline 'Standing up for the right of the tall guy to sit down' - is two pieces of plastic that are clipped on to the seat in front on a flight. Fastening on to the arms of the tray table, the device, it locks the chair in front into place, preventing the passenger from reclining

Seat reclining has been the subject of much debate in the media over the past year (file photo)

The FBI confirmed that one person was taken in for questioning, but no arrests have been made.

The remaining 136 passengers were transferred to another aircraft and arrived in San Francisco early Monday morning, about five hours later, according to CNN.

Seat reclining has been the subject of much debate in the media over the past year.