Narrative:

Passenger in xxd notified me at the aft galley that his seat was broken. I secured all service supplies and went to attend to passenger claim that his seat was broken. Passenger stated that when he sat down in his seat after being up in the aisle; that his wife's seat; which was seat xxf; lifted off the floor in a 'see-saw' like motion. I asked the family to stand up in the aisle as I investigated. I slightly pushed on the seat back to check the stability of the seat and discovered that the entire row of seat moved out of its tracking. One of the chair posts was never secured to its bracket. I tried to move the seats back into its proper position but was injured in the process and at that time the #4 flight attendant took over trying to reposition the seats back into place.the captain was notified of the issue and was contacting headquarters for assistance. Passenger 'X' in yyb came to the back to assist with repositioning the row and attempted to secure the seats. After 5-10 minutes; the captain was notified of our difficulty with getting the seats back in place. Passenger 'X' continued to work on the seats while the #4 flight attendant maintained service and I reseated another adjacent passenger to the aft jumpseat so that the wife could sit with her son; who was a lap child.during that time; another passenger volunteered to be reseated so that the family could sit together. At this time; passenger in xye moved to xyf; passenger in xyd moved to xye; and the passenger who was in xyd sat in seat xxd for the duration of the flight until landing. The captain was notified after 25 to 30 minutes that we were not able to put the row of seats back into its proper slots but was able to temporarily secure it for landing. As an extra precaution; the captain asked us to use the harness to tie the seats down to ensure that the seats did not go airborne during landing; which was done. All affected passengers were offered food and beverages to make the flight more tolerable until landing.prior to landing; passenger sitting in aft jumpseat became a little nauseous and was then moved to the yyb seat. We provided her with some ginger ale and crackers to help alleviate the symptoms. Passenger 'X' sat in the aft jumpseat and the passenger originally in xyf sat in forward jumpseat for landing. The aircraft was full and no passenger seats were available. Flight attendant #1 and I requested the captain to make sure someone would meet the aircraft to speak to affected passengers. We landed without incident and passengers were met by customer and flight service managers. Passengers were not physically injured but were very unhappy and shaken by the incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A MD80 flight attendant described how a seat row had lifted out of the seat track and was secured in-flight with tie-downs. Affected passengers had been reseated and flight attendant jumpseats were used for the remainder of the flight.

Narrative: Passenger in XXD notified me at the aft galley that his seat was broken. I secured all service supplies and went to attend to passenger claim that his seat was broken. Passenger stated that when he sat down in his seat after being up in the aisle; that his wife's seat; which was seat XXF; lifted off the floor in a 'see-saw' like motion. I asked the family to stand up in the aisle as I investigated. I slightly pushed on the seat back to check the stability of the seat and discovered that the entire row of seat moved out of its tracking. One of the chair posts was never secured to its bracket. I tried to move the seats back into its proper position but was injured in the process and at that time the #4 Flight Attendant took over trying to reposition the seats back into place.The Captain was notified of the issue and was contacting headquarters for assistance. Passenger 'X' in YYB came to the back to assist with repositioning the row and attempted to secure the seats. After 5-10 minutes; the Captain was notified of our difficulty with getting the seats back in place. Passenger 'X' continued to work on the seats while the #4 Flight Attendant maintained service and I reseated another adjacent passenger to the aft jumpseat so that the wife could sit with her son; who was a lap child.During that time; another passenger volunteered to be reseated so that the family could sit together. At this time; passenger in XYE moved to XYF; passenger in XYD moved to XYE; and the passenger who was in XYD sat in seat XXD for the duration of the flight until landing. The Captain was notified after 25 to 30 minutes that we were not able to put the row of seats back into its proper slots but was able to temporarily secure it for landing. As an extra precaution; the Captain asked us to use the harness to tie the seats down to ensure that the seats did not go airborne during landing; which was done. All affected passengers were offered food and beverages to make the flight more tolerable until landing.Prior to landing; passenger sitting in aft jumpseat became a little nauseous and was then moved to the YYB seat. We provided her with some ginger ale and crackers to help alleviate the symptoms. Passenger 'X' sat in the aft jumpseat and the passenger originally in XYF sat in forward jumpseat for landing. The aircraft was full and no passenger seats were available. Flight Attendant #1 and I requested the Captain to make sure someone would meet the aircraft to speak to affected passengers. We landed without incident and passengers were met by Customer and Flight Service Managers. Passengers were not physically injured but were very unhappy and shaken by the incident.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.