Travel blogger Harvey called the incident "the ultimate white tears," saying the woman was distraught over being separated from her husband, who the blogger clarified was "two rows up in a middle seat with his headphones on, sleeping in heavenly peace the entire flight,"according to New York Post.

Harvey was traveling from Istanbul to Washington, D.C., on a connecting flight after visiting Kazakhstan following her father's death.

The woman had asked Harvey to exchange seats with her, which would have meant giving up her seat for a less desirable middle seat. After listening to the woman cry for hours, Harvey asked whether she had lost a family member.

Airline passengers on a flight. Photo by Pexels

"I finally asked her if someone died, because who cries for [three] hours?" Harvey wrote on Instagram under video footage she took on the flight, having blurred out the offending passenger’s face. "She said nobody died. She just missed her husband and whose shoulder would she lay her head on."

Harvey later joked on Instagram that the incident had made her question her own marriage because she apparently did not love her husband enough, NDTV reported.

She also questioned why some travelers expect strangers to exchange seats with them, particularly on long-haul flights.

The video sparked widespread discussion online, with most commenters supporting Harvey's decision not to move.

Many argued that travelers wishing to sit together should arrange their seats when booking rather than expect others to give up their chosen or paid-for seats.

Some users noted that both the woman and her husband appeared to have middle seats, suggesting they had opted for cheaper tickets without paying for seat selection.

"Can't survive a 10 hour flight without her husband but also won't pay to seat together. None of those sound like your problem," one commenter wrote.

Harvey's Instagram post has since received more than 97,000 likes and 16,000 comments.