Man Violently Dragged Off Plane After United Airlines Overbooks Flight

Source 1 - Man Violently Dragged Off Plane After United Airlines Overbooks Flight
Source 2 - A man wouldn’t leave an overbooked United flight. So he was dragged off, battered and limp.
First saw this on HuffPo, but I just got an alert in my email from WaPo about it while I started writing this thread so I'm posting both links.

United Airlines is at it again. So apparently UA overbooked a flight by four passagengers and were asking some people to voluntarily give up their seats so they could send some employees to another town. No one complied. Eventually they went to a lottery system. The first couple to get selected agreed. But the third guy said no. He was apparently a doctor and needed to be in that town by the next day. So he refused to get off the flight.

UA was having none of that. They called the police who came aboard the flight and dragged him off the plane by his arms. Watch the video in the links. It's pretty awful.
Here's Huff Po on it:

Audra D. Bridges, who posted a video of the encounter to Facebook, told The Courier-Journal that airline staff were looking for one volunteer to give up a seat before the flight boarded, and they offered passengers $400 and a hotel stay.
TylerBridges
Passengers screamed for the officers to stop as they watched the man being dragged down the aisle of the plane.

After the flight boarded, staff announced that they needed four people to volunteer to give up seats so that United employees who needed to be in Louisville Monday could take them. The amount was increased to $800, she said, and passengers were told the plane wouldn’t leave until four people volunteered.

When nobody offered, staff announced a computer would select four people. One couple cooperated and left. The third passenger selected was the man in the video.

In the videos, an upset woman is heard suggesting that the pilots rent a car and drive to Louisville instead.

In a statement, the airline apologized for the “overbook situation.”

“After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate,” the airline said in a statement. “We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities.”

United did not immediately respond to a question of whether it’s typical airline policy to call law enforcement when a customer refuses to “voluntarily” give up his or her seat.

WaPo:

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.”

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.

United is going to be taking some heat for this one. That is just uncalled for. Your employees aren't more important than paying customers. Like the one lady says, why couldn't UA just rent a car for these people and they drive themselves? It's not the passengers' fault the flight is overbooked.

FAA rules require employees get like 10 hours of rest and it doesn't include time driving down to Louisville, so no they could not have rented a car.

However, they should have offered enough cash to get four people to give up their seats. It would have been easier in this situation to just offer like $2500/person cash and call it a day. I am sure they would have gotten volunteers. I think they offered like $800 with no takers. You keep upping it until someone thinks it is worth messing up their schedule.

You don't forcibly remove paying customers imho. This is a prime example of how certain employees cannot see the forest for the trees. The PR damage from this more than outweighs any costs of just offering a good amount to get people to give up their seats.

I hate United and only fly them because they have a lock on the Chicago market.

On another note, anyone who flies from Chicago to Louisville is an idiot imho. It is much easier to just drive. I do it a couple of times a year. 4.5 hours. It takes about that long to fly between check in, potential delays, picking up rental cars, etc.

I hope they get every bad bit of press! They deserve it sooo much. And of course they brought in the jackboots to rough him up.

a reply to: Edumakated

Stories like this make me glad that my airline of choice is and has always been Southwest. I'm so happy that I can fly directly from Baltimore to Denver on Southwest this summer when I go to Red Rocks.

Video of the incident

a reply to: Krazysh0t

We are all cattle to the large corps. I wonder if they used a bull stun gun. I would suggest this one.




The airlines see how we are treated by Home land Security and figure what the hell, let's start beating the sh out of 'em.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

United has without a doubt the worst service I've ever experienced in the airline industry.

But this is just on another level.

originally posted by: rockintitz
a reply to: Krazysh0t

United has without a doubt the worst service I've ever experienced in the airline industry.

But this is just on another level.

Keep in mind this is RIGHT on the back of that incident where they didn't let those women onto a flight because they were wearing leggings. Say what you want about that incident since the women were employees, but THIS incident is just wrong on many many levels.

The flight probably not even overbooked until the airline employees needed a ride, you would think that an airline would be able to get its employees anywhere they need to be without removing paying passengers.
Who would be to blame if one of the patients has complications because he wasn't there?
Maybe we should ask why theses pilots or flight attendants needed to be in Louisville before a doctor?

a reply to: rockintitz

Love how the other cattle sat and watched the other animal get his.

The conditioning has worked perfectly.

That Dr. is almost guarantee'd a six figure payout from United's gross incompetence and criminal harassment.

Another angle

Shocking

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: rockintitz

Love how the other cattle sat and watched the other animal get his.

The conditioning has worked perfectly.

They just didn't wanna get dragged into the gray room after him.

If you don't submit you hate freedom.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

At least they played lotto while still on the ground.

"Overbooked" isn't the operative word. Screwed up schedule, ditched passengers is more like it. Sorry about that folks.

Okay first were going to ask for volunteers to be thrown overboard, then we'll enter your name involuntarily in a lottery, and if you still don't leave we'll throw you off.

Were they really employees? Imagine having a seat next to the guy replacing the guy that got thrown off.

Awkward

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: Edumakated

Stories like this make me glad that my airline of choice is and has always been Southwest. I'm so happy that I can fly directly from Baltimore to Denver on Southwest this summer when I go to Red Rocks.

I've never liked United because they've always had the most stingy frequent flier program. I also had them burn m. big time after 9/11. I used to travel a lot for business and I missed getting status on United by like one flight and the only reason I missed it was because United canceled the flight. They wouldn't do me a solid and give me the status. It sounds petty, but when you are on a plane every week, gaining status is a HUGE deal.

I was so pissed off I switched to Delta and United literally lost like $100k in airfares from me that year, all because they wouldn't bump me to Premier.

Truth be told, all airlines suck donkey balls though. Part of the problem though is that the market is an oligopoly in many cities and viewed as a commodity, so it is always a race to the bottom in pricing and service. Combine that with TSA/FAA bureaucracies, Union rules, and just large bureaucractic organizations in general you are going to get some zhitty customer service all around.

a reply to: intrptr

I'd like to hear what UA's definition of the word "voluntary" is.

UA should have relented and try to put their employees on another carrier. This is really stupid unless there's more to the story we don't have. Like the last story about UA refusing someone to board because of what they were wearing. Later we find out it was a family member of an employee. Airlines have always had a a dress-code policy for employees so they were in the right to refuse boarding. It's just the way the agents seem to go about it that's wrong. In these two cases they made a scene which, in this day and age, will make it to social media before it's even over.

UA needs to do some training for their agents to learn how to handle issues instead of acting like authoritarians.

a reply to: Edumakated

It's funny you bring up post-9/11 because it was Southwest not implementing all those crazy fees and pricing structures to gouge customers like all the other airlines were doing right after 9/11 that REALLY cemented my love of the company. I believe they were the only or one of the few airlines that didn't need a bailout too.

I think I've flown on UA all of once in my life and I wasn't too crazy about the experience from what I remember.

Truth be told, all airlines suck donkey balls though. Part of the problem though is that the market is an oligopoly in many cities and viewed as a commodity, so it is always a race to the bottom in pricing and service. Combine that with TSA/FAA bureaucracies, Union rules, and just large bureaucractic organizations in general you are going to get some zhitty customer service all around.

Yeah. We really need to address the way airports are ran in the country.

a reply to: rockintitz
Good point, this guy is a bad apple and deserved this. Right everyone?

originally posted by: WeDemBoyz
Video of the incident

Thanks, we can hear his head smack the seat hard at about 14 seconds. He is dragged from the plane unconscious. Hear the lady go, "OMG look what you did to him" (dude is out cold).