Thread: A man wouldn’t leave an overbooked United flight. So he was dragged off, battered

United Airlines said a man wouldn’t give up his spot on an overbooked flight. According to witnesses, he was pulled screaming from his seat by security and back to the terminal at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. (Tyler Bridges)

United Airlines says a man wouldn’t give up his spot on an overbooked flight Sunday.

So, according to witnesses and videos of the incident, he was pulled screaming from his seat by security, knocked against an arm rest and dragged down the aisle and back to the terminal at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

United refused to answer questions about the incident, which horrified other passengers on the Louisville-bound flight. An airline spokesman only apologized for the overbooked flight, and said police were called after a passenger “refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily.”

What happened was captured on cellphone video by at least two passengers.

Tyler Bridges recalled trouble starting almost as soon as he and his wife boarded.

An airline supervisor walked onto the plane and brusquely announced: “We have United employees that need to fly to Louisville tonight. … This flight’s not leaving until four people get off.”

“That rubbed some people the wrong way,” Bridges said.

Passengers were offered vouchers to rebook, he said, but no one volunteered.

So the airline chose for them.

A young couple was told to leave first, Bridges recalled. “They begrudgingly got up and left,” he said.

Then an older man, who refused.

“He says, ‘Nope. I’m not getting off the flight. I’m a doctor and have to see patients tomorrow morning,’” Bridges said.

The man became angry as the manager persisted, Bridges said, eventually yelling. “He said, more or less, ‘I’m being selected because I’m Chinese.’”

A police officer boarded. Then a second and a third.

Bridges then began recording, as did another passenger — as the officers leaned over the man, a lone holdout in his window seat.

“Can’t they rent a car for the pilots?” another passenger asks in the videos.

Then the man, out of frame, screams.

One of the officers quickly reaches across two empty seats, snatches the man and pulls him into the aisle.

“My God!” someone yells — not for the first time.

He goes limp after hitting the floor.

“It looked like it knocked him out,” Bridges said. “His nose was bloody.”

His glasses nearly knocked off his face, the man clutches his cellphone as one of the officers pulls him by both arms down the aisle and off the plane.

“This is horrible,” someone says.

“What are you doing? No! This is wrong.”

And with that, Bridges said, four United employees boarded and took the empty seats.

They were not popular among the passengers, he recalled.

“People were saying you should be ashamed to work for this company,” Bridges said.

And it wasn’t over.

In another video, the man runs back onto the plane, his clothes still mussed from his forcible ejection, frantically repeating: “I have to go home. I have to go home.”

“He was kind of dazed and confused,” Bridges said. He recalled a group of high school students leaving the plane in disgust at that point, their adult escort explaining to other passengers: “They don’t need to see this anymore.”

The airline eventually cleared everyone from the plane, Bridges said, and did not let them back on until the man was removed a second time — in a stretcher.

In the end, Bridges and his wife got to Louisville about three hours late.

“It was a pretty tense flight,” he said.

United Chief Oscar Munoz tweeted that everyone at the airline was upset about it.

Munoz, by the way, was recently honored as “Communicator of the Year” by PRWeek. Late Monday afternoon, the Chicago Department of Aviation said one of the officers involved in the incident had been placed on leave.

“The incident on United flight 3411 was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the Department,” the agency said in a statement. “That officer has been placed on leave effective today pending a thorough review of the situation.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.a0fc929dd102

A video posted to Facebook Sunday evening showed what is becoming another public relations nightmare for United Airlines, which is owned by United Continental Holdings.

One unnamed passenger boarded a United flight at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, headed to Louisville, not knowing he was about to be forced to leave a plane that was overbooked.

A nearly 30-second video clip, posted on social media by a fellow passenger, shows three security officers approaching a man who was already seated, asking him to give up his spot on the plane. After the man refuses, he was eventually dragged by his arms and screaming toward the front of the plane.

A witness to the debacle said passengers were warned at the gate that the flight was overbooked, and United was asking for volunteers to switch flights, with reimbursements included. Nobody spoke up.

According to Audra Bridges, who posted the video to her Facebook page Sunday evening, United management came on board the flight and used a computer to randomly select four passengers who would be removed from that trip.

The man in the video — one of those four randomly selected — reportedly claimed he was a doctor and needed to see his patients at the hospital in the morning, then proceeded to say he would call his lawyers.

After being forcibly ejected by three security officers, the man was able to get back on the plane, though his face was bloody, and he seemed disoriented, Bridges said. United offered no update to the flight's other passengers, who waited for more than two hours for things to calm down before taking off, she added.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said the incident was "not in accordance with our standard operating procedure." It also said that the dragging of the passenger was "obviously not condoned by the department."

"That officer has been placed on leave effective today pending a thorough review of the situation," the department said in a statement to NBC News.

Later Monday, the U.S. Department of Transportation said it is reviewing the incident. "While it is legal for airlines to [involuntarily] bump passengers from an oversold flight when there are not enough volunteers, it is the airline's responsibility to determine its own fair boarding priorities," the DOT said in a statement.

Earlier, United issued a statement, saying: "Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities."

"This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United," United's Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz later followed up in his own statement. "I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened."

As it often does, Twitter erupted following the posting of this video, with many individuals voicing their concern over the way the man was treated by United employees.

Just last month, two teenagers wearing leggings were stopped from boarding a United flight.

The teens were flying using free passes for employees or family members, and thus were considered airline representatives, a United spokesman said following the incident. The airline said this is why the teens were told by a gate attendant they could not get on the plane wearing form-fitting pants.

Video surfaces of man being dragged from overbooked United flight

Originally Posted by Slick

“We have United employees that need to fly to Louisville tonight. … This flight’s not leaving until four people get off.”

In a nutshell, United overbooked. They wanted to fuck off 4 passengers so that united employees could make their flights. Not other passengers. Employees. They ended up "randomly" picking 4 people and 1 doctor refused.

Shitstorm ensues. Twitter blown up. United looks like a real big bag of dicks.

This is grim. Airlines employing nightclub bouncer tactics.

And he was later crucified in Times Square...

Am I the only person who always reads battered in these stories as dipped in a mixture of flour, egg, and milk and deep-fried.

Originally Posted by DrB0b

Am I the only person who always reads battered in these stories as dipped in a mixture of flour, egg, and milk and deep-fried.

No, but now that you mention it, I probably will for the rest of my life.

Another reason United is an awful airline.

I used to fly them once per year. Garbage.

I'm sure they're in the boardroom coming up with a PR campaign apology and response now that this has gone viral.

America huh... what a fucking shit place to live.

Originally Posted by Cold Pizza

I'm sure they're in the boardroom coming up with a PR campaign apology and response now that this has gone viral.

You would think so- but I doubt it. People will still fly United, because it may be the best time/route option OR its cheaper.

Originally Posted by Neo

America huh... what a fucking shit place to live.

Its not a shit place to live, but this kind of stuff really does shame the fuck out of the country.

I cant stand this kind of thing, and neither can the majority of teh internetz.

Originally Posted by Lancelot

Originally Posted by Cold Pizza

I'm sure they're in the boardroom coming up with a PR campaign apology and response now that this has gone viral.

You would think so- but I doubt it. People will still fly United, because it may be the best time/route option OR its cheaper.

Opposite, basically:

United CEO doubles down in email to employees, says passenger was 'disruptive and belligerent'

In an email to employees, United CEO Oscar Munoz addressed an incident in which an overbooked passenger had to be forcibly removed from a United plane.
Passenger described as "disruptive and belligerent."
Munoz: "I emphatically stand behind all of you."

United CEO Oscar Munoz doubled down in a letter to employees on Monday evening, claiming that employees "followed established procedures" when removing a passenger from a plane because it was overbooked, and calling the passenger "disruptive and belligerent."

United had to ask several passengers who had already boarded a flight from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday evening to leave, as the airline had sold too many tickets. One man refused to leave, and United called airport officials, who forcibly removed him from the plane.

Video circulated of the incident earlier in the day, showing the man being dragged from the plane and later returning with blood on his face. The incident drew scorn on Twitter and other social media, especially when Munoz used the euphemism "re-accomodate" in a public statement to describe the customers booted from the flight.

According to the letter, which was obtained by CNBC, when crew members first approached the passenger to tell him to leave, he "raised his voice and refused to comply," and each time they asked again "he refused and became more and more disruptive and belligerent."

Crew members "were left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight," Munoz wrote, and at one point the passenger "continued to resist - running back onto the aircraft in defiance of both our crew and security officials."

Munoz acknowledged to employees that the company could learn lessons from the incident, but said: "I emphatically stand behind all of you."

United CEO: Passenger 'disruptive belligerent'

Originally Posted by Slick

"re-accomodate"

Originally Posted by Slick

Originally Posted by Lancelot

Originally Posted by Cold Pizza

I'm sure they're in the boardroom coming up with a PR campaign apology and response now that this has gone viral.

You would think so- but I doubt it. People will still fly United, because it may be the best time/route option OR its cheaper.

Opposite, basically:

United CEO doubles down in email to employees, says passenger was 'disruptive and belligerent'

In an email to employees, United CEO Oscar Munoz addressed an incident in which an overbooked passenger had to be forcibly removed from a United plane.
Passenger described as "disruptive and belligerent."
Munoz: "I emphatically stand behind all of you."

United CEO Oscar Munoz doubled down in a letter to employees on Monday evening, claiming that employees "followed established procedures" when removing a passenger from a plane because it was overbooked, and calling the passenger "disruptive and belligerent."

United had to ask several passengers who had already boarded a flight from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday evening to leave, as the airline had sold too many tickets. One man refused to leave, and United called airport officials, who forcibly removed him from the plane.

Video circulated of the incident earlier in the day, showing the man being dragged from the plane and later returning with blood on his face. The incident drew scorn on Twitter and other social media, especially when Munoz used the euphemism "re-accomodate" in a public statement to describe the customers booted from the flight.

According to the letter, which was obtained by CNBC, when crew members first approached the passenger to tell him to leave, he "raised his voice and refused to comply," and each time they asked again "he refused and became more and more disruptive and belligerent."

Crew members "were left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight," Munoz wrote, and at one point the passenger "continued to resist - running back onto the aircraft in defiance of both our crew and security officials."

Munoz acknowledged to employees that the company could learn lessons from the incident, but said: "I emphatically stand behind all of you."

United CEO: Passenger 'disruptive belligerent'

The CEO can take this position. It's his choice.

If the passenger was "belligerent" then let's see some video.

Gives a new meaning to this?

Originally Posted by Cold Pizza

United CEO Oscar Munoz doubled down in a letter to employees on Monday evening, claiming that employees "followed established procedures" when removing a passenger from a plane because it was overbooked, and calling the passenger "disruptive and belligerent."

Originally Posted by Cold Pizza

Crew members "were left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight," Munoz wrote, and at one point the passenger "continued to resist - running back onto the aircraft in defiance of both our crew and security officials."

I would say the "established procedures" are wrong and there are plenty of alternatives.

Alternatives would include

:Offering an passenger who wishes to relinquish their seat, a seat on the next flight plus complementary flight of equivalent value or air miles.
: Putting the four United employees on the next available flight even another airlines flight. etc, etc..

Oscar Munoz comes across as an authoritative bully boy and not a customer oriented boss of a consumer based company.

Also Oscar Munoz/United has forgotten one of the golden rules that a disgruntled customer is you best ally if his/her complaint is handled properly.

This man is a doctor?...You would think he might have a little more "self control"...He seemed to completely "lose the plot"...

"Just kill me"...FFS...

Think I'd find a new GP...Jaysus, he might even be a specialist...

Bit of an "over reaction"...But then he must think he's Gawd or somesuch "untouchable"...