The forbidden airplane seat that no one is allowed to sit in

An airplane seat that no one is allowed to sit in leaves travelers scratching their heads.

A photo of the banned seat – taken by eagle-eyed passenger Sven Wöste on board a Croatia Airlines flight – shows it has the warning ‘DO NOT OCCUPATE THIS SEAT’ stitched into white letters.

Wöste captured the image of seat 31E while sitting in the last aisle of the Airbus A220-300.

A flight attendant also told him that a seat belt was not fastened.

“It made no sense to me because the attachment for the belt was there,” he said. “It should have been easier to fasten a seat belt than that stitching.”

Wöste posted a photo of his find in a Facebook group, prompting astonished viewers to put forward their own theories.

“Probably as an extra emergency seat for an airline employee or someone who absolutely needs to be on the flight when it’s fully booked,” one person wrote.

“It’s a lot easier to keep people out of a seat without a seat belt, and they probably have an extra seat belt on the plane so they can attach it if someone needs the seat.”

Another commenter, who said they have worked in aircraft maintenance for 15 years, said “there are many reasons” why the seat should be unoccupied and suggested it is probably “just broken.”

“It could be an armrest, or the backrest isn’t working,” the person said.

“Anyway, their procedure is to mark the seat and remove the seat belt if necessary.”

One commenter suggested that passengers were “locked out” of sitting there so the airline could save money, and suggested that the plan would require staffing more flight attendants if the number of fliers were too high.

Another person thought it was a great idea to get a spot next to the forbidden spot.

“The seats are so narrow these days that I was finally able to sit without elbowing the next person,” the commenter wrote.

This was reported by a Croatian news channel Avio radarthe ‘ghost chair’ must remain empty due to ‘complex safety regulations’ and ‘financial feasibility’.

Initially, the Airbus A220-300 was designed for a maximum of 145 seats, in accordance with exit rules that require each aircraft to have four doors and two overwing exits.

In 2021, Airbus received approval from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to increase seating capacity on each aircraft to 149.

To maintain safety with the new capacity, the evacuation slides for the overwing exits had to be modified to include two descent lines instead of one.

If a passenger were allowed to sit in the 150th seat, the plane would need a total of four exits above the wings, which would create a huge financial burden.

A map of the plane also shows that the plane is missing row 13.

“This way, no one who thinks number 13 is unlucky has to sit in that row,” the airline said.

DailyMail.com has contacted Croatia Airlines for more information.