Exit Row Seats Collapse Into Row Behind During Takeoff—Latest Safety Scare For Troubled Airline

On a Batik Air flight, just after takeoff during initial climb, passenger seats suddenly failed and collapsed backward. These were coach seats, but they became angled-flat business class seats. And this happened in the aircraft’s exit row.

Batik Air Uçağında Şok Olay: Kalkış Sonrası Yolcu Koltuğu Yerinden Çıktıhttps://t.co/fBAmrXfrdx pic.twitter.com/F5LW7nhJCZ

— herdem_aviation (@muratherdemm) February 22, 2026

Passengers were moved to other seats, since the flight wasn’t full. No serious injuries were reported. On arrival, maintenance inspected the seat and performed repairs.

This looks like a seat-track attachment issue, but could have been a structural insssue that let the seat assembly dump back.

• Seat fittings might not have been properly attached, could have been word, or a locking pin failed. That could allow the seat base to shift or tip under takeoff load.

• Loose or missing connection hardware like fasteners or bolts could allow the seat to dump back when loads change at climb out.

An unexpected seat collapse is obviously dangerous. It also compromises how the seat belt works. And it appears the seats slammed into the row behind. Plus, it’s blocking egress near an exit row, so dangerous in the event of evacuation, more likely at a critical phase of flight light takeoff.

Batik Air, originally called Space Jet, was founded as a full service subsidiary of Indonesian airline Lion Air, the carrier which experienced the first of two Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes on October 29, 2018.

I haven’t updated my priors about Batik Air and Lion Air Group generally in several years, and that’s something I’d want to do before flying them. My impression coming out of the Lion Air 737 MAX investigation is that they’re not a carrier I’d have confidence in, either for maintenance or pilot training.

Shortly before the 737 MAX crash, a replacement angle of attack sensor had been installed on the aircraft and it was miscalibrated by an outsourced repair shop. And similar symptions to the fatal flihgt had occured on the previous segment flown by the same aicraft, including uncommanded nose-down trim events (what you got with MCAS system activations from incorrect angle of attack inputs). That information was not written up correctly, and the next crew was unaware. In fact, there were missing pages in maintenance logs discovered during the accident investigation.

On a Batik Air flight specifically, both pilots fell asleep in the cockpit, veered off course, and lied to air traffic control.

I’m not saying these concerns should still hold – just that I haven’t had reason to deep dive in to see. However, incidents like this don’t instill confidence, even recognizing that outlier situations can happen with any airline.