United Airlines violently drags a doctor off a plane so employee could take his seat

[the-pi-guy]

United Airlines violently drags a doctor off a plane so employee could take his seat - NeoGAF

Flight was overbooked, and United needed some seats freed up for employees that needed to get somewhere. One of the chosen passengers refused to get up. They called in muscle to forcibly remove him from his seat and literally dragged him off the plane. His mouth was bleeding from hitting an armrest during the altercation:
 United's response: "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."#dontflyunitedVideos
 1. Main video: https://twitter.com/Tyler_Bridges/st...14160042106880

Mirrors:https://streamable.com/fy0y7https://www.facebook.com/audra.dicke...4378182069960/http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/10/travel...rnd/index.htmlhttps://www.thesun.co.uk/news/329722...rbooked-video/

 

2. Another angle: https://twitter.com/JayseDavid/statu...24464088072193
 3. He somehow was able to return, disoriented: https://twitter.com/Tyler_Bridges/st...28695360663552
 4. Victim chanting "I have to go home" with his mouth bleeding:

Originally Posted by Shouta
 
 

 
 https://twitter.com/kaylyn_davis/sta...71574385307648
 Don't know if it's been posted but seriously, fudge United for this. This is indefensible.

 

5. Victim chanting "they'll kill me" or something like that:

Originally Posted by mgarnica89
 
 

 
 don't know if this particular video has been posted but WOW.  Unbelievable what they did to this guy. He's in a state of shock.https://twitter.com/kaylyn_davis/sta...80498186485760

 

News Articleshttp://www.cnn.com/2017/04/10/travel...rnd/index.htmlhttp://www.courier-journal.com/story...lle/100274374/

A video posted on Facebook late Sunday evening shows a passenger on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville being forcibly removed from the plane before takeoff at O’Hare International Airport.
 The video, posted by Audra D. Bridges at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, is taken from an aisle seat on a commercial airplane that appears to be preparing to take flight. The 31-second clip shows three men wearing radio equipment and security jackets speaking with a man seated on the plane. After a few seconds, one of the men grabs the passenger, who screams, and drags him by his arms toward the front of the plane. The video ends before anything else is shown.
 A United spokesperson confirmed in an email Sunday night that a passenger had been taken off a flight in Chicago."Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked," the spokesperson said. "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."
 Bridges, a Louisville resident, gave her account of the flight Sunday night.Passengers were told at the gate that the flight was overbooked and United, offering $400 and a hotel stay, was looking for one volunteer to take another flight to Louisville at 3 p.m. Monday. Passengers were allowed to board the flight, Bridges said, and once the flight was filled those on the plane were told that four people needed to give up their seats to stand-by United employees that needed to be in Louisville on Monday for a flight. Passengers were told that the flight would not take off until the United crew had seats, Bridges said, and the offer was increased to $800, but no one volunteered.
 Then, she said, a manager came aboard the plane and said a computer would select four people to be taken off the flight. One couple was selected first and left the airplane, she said, before the man in the video was confronted.
 Bridges said the man became "very upset" and said that he was a doctor who needed to see patients at a hospital in the morning. The manager told him that security would be called if he did not leave willingly, Bridges said, and the man said he was calling his lawyer. One security official came and spoke with him, and then another security officer came when he still refused. Then, she said, a third security official came on the plane and threw the passenger against the armrest before dragging him out of the plane.
 The man was able to get back on the plane after initially being taken off – his face was bloody and he seemed disoriented, Bridges said, and he ran to the back of the plane. Passengers asked to get off the plane as a medical crew came on to deal with the passenger, she said, and passengers were then told to go back to the gate so that officials could "tidy up" the plane before taking off.
 Bridges said the man shown in the video was the only person who was forcibly removed.
 "Everyone was shocked and appalled," Bridges said. "There were several children on the flight as well that were very upset."
 The flight was delayed around two hours before it could fly to Louisville, and it arrived in Kentucky later Sunday night. No update was given to the passengers about the condition of the man forcibly removed, Bridges said.

 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/329722...rbooked-video/Photos

Originally Posted by Tripon
 
 

 
 https://twitter.com/DSzymborski/stat...06529618591744

 

shaming "apology" #2:

Originally Posted by Pattycakes
 
 

 
 https://twitter.com/united/status/851471781827420160

 

Chicago Police Department is investigating, implies passenger was at fault even though all the other passengers seem to be on his side:

Originally Posted by Tovarisc
 
 

 
 https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/statu...00160580550656

 

Originally Posted by Tovarisc
 
 

 
 https://twitter.com/AP/status/851512878624628737

 

[Legend]

Seems fully legal and standard for the airline but that doesn't stop it from being horrible PR.

[the-pi-guy]

GAF is having a pretty big discussion about whether it was legal or not.  

Leaning towards it being against their terms.  

[BananaKing]

Seems fully legal and standard for the airline but that doesn't stop it from being horrible PR.

How on earth can this be legal?

[Aura7541]

Seems fully legal and standard for the airline but that doesn't stop it from being horrible PR.

It's incompetent as hell. United Airlines wouldn't have gotten into this mess if it kept a close eye on the reservations and made sure that the flight doesn't get overbooked.

[Raven]

An airline corporation sending several of its goons to violently remove a 69-year old man who paid for his seat because the airline iced up and overbooked a flight they needed seats for staff for should never be something legal. I'm sure they were perfectly capable of setting up another means for those staff to get where they needed to go. It's stupid that they don't have actual assigned sections of the plane for staff and instead rely on seating them with customers. The people defending these actions are beyond sickening.

[the-pi-guy]

Bleeding from the mouth because a company decided that their employee should have the seat that you paid for, probably even over 100$ is a pretty poorly executed result.

[DerNebel]

Good job  *thumbs up*

[BasilZero]

Disgusting.



More reasons to add to hate riding on a airplane, apparently paying for a ticket isnt enough to warrant keeping your seat.

[Legend]

How on earth can this be legal?

Overbooking flights is pretty messed up and weird but it happens a lot. In 2008 (only stat I found) 63 thousand people were bumped off flights. I've been on a lot of flights where they've offered to bump my family. If not enough people take the offer, then they increase the payment. If still not enough people take it, they forcibly remove people at random.

It's incompetent as hell. United Airlines wouldn't have gotten into this mess if it kept a close eye on the reservations and made sure that the flight doesn't get overbooked.

No they overbook on purpose. It's standard operating procedure. They assume a certain % of people will cancel or miss the flight so they want to sell those seats preemptively.

Hopefully the backlash from this changes that.

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

I hope not, i always take the offer when it comes up...

Maybe they should just keep rasing the offer. Some one will crack.

[Raven]

Southwest changes slogan in wake of #United pic.twitter.com/fnNf5NtRo2

— Jordan (@jordansammy) April 11, 2017

[DD_Bwest]

when i was a kid and my dad was on a business trip,  on the way back it was over booked and they offered 800 for someone to get off,  he jumped at it.  the next day it happened again and he got another 800.  

we got to go to disney land with the vouchers lol   his boss was pissed because he didnt tell him why he was getting off the plane.  he wanted the chance for the  vouchers too lol the cheap basket

[the-pi-guy]

NeoGAF - View Single Post -  United Airlines violently drags a doctor off a plane so employee could take his seat

All the armchair lawyers in here should probably read a real aviation lawyer's take on this:http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/04/1...emoved-flight/

"Certainly you can be involuntarily bumped," aviation attorney Joseph LoRusso told CBS4's Kelly Werthmann. "Can you be forcibly removed in a situation like this? That's where we get into a bit of a gray area."

 

"To the extent this was taken, that creates an entirely different subject of whether it was overly forceful or beyond protocol," he said. However, LoRusso questions if United Airlines was within its legal right to ask flight 3411 passengers for their seats because standby crew should not have priority over paying customers. "Were we really dealing with selling more tickets than we had seats? It doesn't seem like that's the case, at which point the overbooking protocol seems to be unwarranted," LoRusso said.

 

And to his last part, 14 CFR 250.2a states "In the event of an oversold flight, every carrier shall ensure that the smallest practicable number of persons holding confirmed reserved space on that flight are denied boarding involuntarily." Now, look at the summary of events posted earlier in this thread, which appears to be from the CEO:

 

United isn't denying that the seats sought were for a different United crew, as has been reported by other passengers on that flight.  So this was not an "oversold flight" as required by the federal regulation.  And in fact, the title of 14 CFR 250 is "Oversales".  As a result, these regulations do not seem to apply to the situation at hand, where United was attempting to bump passengers not due to oversold tickets, but rather to get their crew on the flight. So yeah, please continue telling everyone that this passenger doesn't have a cause of action to file suit against United.  There will be a settlement on this, and it will be deserved.
 

[BananaKing]

Overbooking flights is pretty messed up and weird but it happens a lot. In 2008 (only stat I found) 63 thousand people were bumped off flights. I've been on a lot of flights where they've offered to bump my family. If not enough people take the offer, then they increase the payment. If still not enough people take it, they forcibly remove people at random.

No they overbook on purpose. It's standard operating procedure. They assume a certain % of people will cancel or miss the flight so they want to sell those seats preemptively.

Hopefully the backlash from this changes that.

how on earth do they have the right to do so? and how on earth do they have the right to forcefully beat a man and remove him from a plain after he legally BOUGHT a ticket. i hope this man sues the living hell out of them for millions.