United Airlines had an (allegedly)* overbooked flight yesterday - they needed four seats available for crew who needed to reach the destination. They offered passengers vouchers. All refused. They then began a passenger lottery trying to force people off the plane.

 

When one man refused to disembark - a doctor who claimed he had patients to see in the morning - United had him forcibly removed, but not before assaulting him and dragging him through the plane. While being videotaped.

 

Buzzfeed and the Washington Post have details.

 

Quote

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 followed 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.”

 

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 cell phone 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.

 

 

Fly #thefriendlyskies @united Feel The Love ---> pic.twitter.com/iabCxOhQQm

— neighhay (@neighhay) April 10, 2017

Edited April 10, 20178 yr by Vee
ETA: Turns out the flight may not even have been overbooked - they just wanted to give seats to United staff.

This is awful. Is this common and we just don't hear about it? I don't know what's happening to the world.

I'm absolutely disgusted by that. This is a PR nightmare for United.

Turns out the flight may or may not even have been overbooked - they just wanted to give seats to United staff.

 

And now:

 

 

United CEO response to United Express Flight 3411. pic.twitter.com/rF5gNIvVd0

— United (@united) April 10, 2017

Edited April 10, 20178 yr by Vee

I have no clue why airlines and airports feel they have the right to treat people this way. some of them may say "well this stems form 9/11." My ass. 

I hope he sues the pants off of them.

Just last month, Oscar Muñoz was awarded U.S. Communicator of the Year by PR week. Go figure!

 

http://www.prweek.com/article/1426909/united-airlines-ceo-oscar-munoz-named-prweek-us-communicator-year

 

Tonight we will honor United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz as PRWeek U.S. Communicator of the Year #PRWeekAwardsUS https://t.co/MYb0xSH385 pic.twitter.com/N4unyKTdfD

— PRWeek US (@PRWeekUS) March 16, 2017

This is everywhere. Pretty shocking and appalling. They have entered a PR shitstorm and deserve every bit of it. I hope they're made to pay dearly. 

This is part of the reason why I barely fly. Overbooking flights is just so unfair. If you pay for that ticket, you get that seat - unless it's through circumstances that cannot be avoided. I hope this passenger gets a nice settlement out of them.

Overbooked flights IMO should be illegal

OMG, they're making things worse!

 

INBOX: @united CEO sends letter to employees about United Express flight. pic.twitter.com/obVdl6G2E0

— Ryan Ruggiero (@RyanRuggiero) April 10, 2017

He's going to end up without a job!

he blamed the passenger. "FLY UNITED.....so if the plane crashes, no matter what....IT'S YOUR FAULT."

I'd love to say that I'm going to boycott United but I've hated them for years. Once they merged with Continental they decimated the hub at the Cleveland airport. The few times I've flown them since the merger has been an exercise in frustration. I hope this CEO gets dumped on his ass.