A video about an awkward interaction on a flight—during which a passenger was publicly reprimanded for tapping a flight attendant's arm—has gone viral on TikTok.The clip was shared by the passenger, Lucie Fink (@luciebfink), has amassed over 12 million views since it was posted on May 15. In the video, Fink details the moment she gently touched a flight attendant to ask for a drink. "The flight attendant passed my seat with the drinks cart and I thought she skipped our row," Fink said in text overlaid on the clip."So I touched her arm gently and said, 'Sorry, when you get a chance can I trouble you …' but she cut me off and said back to me loudly, 'DO NOT touch the flight attendants.' Everybody turned to look."Fink told Newsweek that the incident occurred during a recent flight from Miami to New York's JFK Airport. She said she immediately recognized that the flight attendant's response, while jarring, was valid."I know I shouldn't have tapped her," Fink said. "The flight was full, and I'm sure the flight attendant was getting annoyed by passengers requesting things of her, not following instructions, and potentially tapping her or touching her in unwanted ways."The total passenger demand for air travel in March rose by 3.3 percent compared to March 2024, marking an increase from the 2.7 percent growth reported for February, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said at the end of April.North American carriers saw a 0.1 percent year-on-year drop in demand for air travel in March, marking a second consecutive month of year-on-year contraction. However, "this is an improvement on the 1.5 percent decline reported for February," according to the IATA.'I Just Felt Momentarily Embarrassed'The video post, tagged with #publichumiliation and other hashtags, resonated widely. "Put a fork in me!!! I'm DONE," Fink wrote in the caption. "I'm one of those people for whom touch just comes naturally. A hand on the arm, a quick shoulder squeeze—it's how I show warmth and connection. But I'm learning not everyone likes that."Fink said she didn't intend to cast blame on the flight crew member. "Some people are viewing the post as me suggesting the flight attendant did something wrong … but the post was more so a comment on how I felt embarrassed by her public reaction to it," Fink told Newsweek. "I just felt momentarily embarrassed, like I had been scolded by a teacher in school, but I definitely don't fault her for it."The moment passed quickly, but "the other passengers just looked at us … then they went back to what they were doing," she said."I knew immediately after this happened that this situation would be relatable to others, in the sense of feeling extra shame when you're corrected by somebody publicly," Fink said.The incident has since become the center of a broader conversation around personal boundaries and social norms, especially in confined spaces like planes."What I find the most interesting about my post and this whole situation is how, in the comments section [of her TikTok video], people are clearly divided about whether or not it is societally acceptable to tap a person on the arm," Fink said. "I am personally very comfortable with physical touch … but I do recognize that many people are not comfortable with it, whether due to a cultural reason, a past trauma, or just personal preference."Fink later conducted an informal poll via her Instagram account, asking her audience whether they believed it was acceptable to tap someone on the arm. Out of more than 2,000 respondents, 75 percent said, "Yes, it's absolutely a normal part of society," while 25 percent said: "Not at all. Do not ever do it."Despite the initial mortification, Fink said that her over-the-top TikTok caption was exaggerated. "I was definitely being overly dramatic with the language about how I may never recover," she added. "I actually don't have social anxiety or anything close to it, so I did recover pretty quickly."'You Did Nothing Wrong'The viral clip sparked discussion among viewers on TikTok.Apple User376884 posted: "Never touch the flight attendants. Would you like it if people touched you randomly in the street? Then don't. It's an absolute no-no. Use the call bell or go to the galley."NazH8504 agreed, writing: "how about just don't touch people … period. It's not hard. An 'excuse me' would have sufficed."User amaliehavemann<3 wrote, "You did nothing wrong," and Heather agreed, saying "She unnecessarily shamed you …"User arrington noted: "As a flight attendant, we get touched ALL the time and it can be really overwhelming. Still, she wasn't right for snapping at you."User souvenir wrote: "I'm a flight attendant- we have conversations about things like this and I personally think some of my own colleagues are way too unfriendly and have too little grace for customers. We're burnt out for many reasons and yes, we all have different boundaries, but that was just unprofessional … I'm sorry you had this experience."Do you have a travel-related video or story to share? 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